Nigeria’s Adesanya beats Cuba’s Romero to retain UFC 248 title

Nigerian-born Israel Adesanya has successfully defended his middleweight title against Yoel Romero in the main event of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 248 division.

The middleweight bout took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday morning.

“Last stylebender” as Adesanya is nicknamed, retained his division’s title after a split decision by the judges to beat the Cuban.

In a tricky duel against the Cuban, the Nigerian won by an unanimous decision of 48-47, 48-47, 49-46

With the victory, Adesanya (18-0) becomes the fourth middleweight in UFC history to start his career with an 8-0 mark in the promotion.

The others include former champions, Anderson Silva, Chris Weidman and Romero (13-4).

Before Sunday’s fight, Adesanya had declared his willingness to challenge Romero aka “soldier of God”.

“He’s a guy that a lot of guys don’t wanna fight, but I like that challenge,” Adesanya said.

“Why don’t you wanna fight him? He’s human. He’s not some Adonis. I look forward to that challenge.”

As of January 27, Adesanya is number six in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

In October 2019, the Nigerian-born professional mixed martial artist — based in Auckland, New Zealand — had knocked out Robert Whittaker to become the UCF middleweight world champion.