News BREAKING NEWS Yoel Romero Out Of The UFC!!!!

[SG123]

But he has such a great body.... surely he’s the best in the world at all weight classes?

 

[SteveColdStone]

If you don’t like Yoel you are dead to me. One of my fav fighters ever in MMA.

 

[Do The Evolution]

This has to be mutually agreed on, right? I hear there's still 3 fights left in his contract so unless he violated one of the terms (not sure what they are, though) there's legally no way for the UFC to just give him the boot.

 

[Russie]

UFC made their money with him. Whatever is going on with him they obviously feel its not worth their headaches to deal with.

 

[Paolo Delutis]

This has to be mutually agreed on, right? I hear there's still 3 fights left in his contract so unless he violated one of the terms (not sure what they are, though) there's legally no way for the UFC to just give him the boot.

That term would start with a U and end in a A ..


For a visual. U _ _ _ A

 

[Jose Beehive]

This is the worst!

 

[Strategery]

If you don’t like Yoel you are dead to me. One of my fav fighters ever in MMA.

I don't like Romero. He is old and boring now.

 

[DatSamboKid]

Genuinely bummed out by this news.

Thanks for the ride Soldier, it was an epic one.

 

[Blayt7hh]

That sucks. I’ve always really like Yoel

 

[TheOneAboveAll3]

but he is the people's champ....

Nope, The Rock and Tito Ortiz will be the only Peoples champion. Now Tito is Californias politician.

 

[MMABr]

Uncrowned champ.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Uncle Goof has turned the UFC into a sinking ship of pointless Contender Series contracts.



Hope Yoel gets paid well wherever he goes.

 

[superpunch]

I'm not saying he was on anything because I have no evidence. But hypothetically speaking... If he were.... I imagine the ufc traitor rationale being a hot pissing, gun shy, old expensive fighter. He's more of a liability then asset

If he pisses hot then they could just keep him under contract during his suspension for 2-4 years at no cost, and then cut him once the suspension is over. That brings no risk to their company, keeps him out of the competition, and costs them nothing. If you're a sociopath, it's the clear move to make. They've done that before.

 

[austinblair]

Uncle Goof has turned the UFC into a sinking ship of pointless Contender Series contracts.



Hope Yoel gets paid well wherever he goes.

Yep. One Yoel fight is worth all those contender contracts. Obvious where the promotion is going and it isn’t higher payouts to the fighters.

U fight Cheap

 

[AznTrojan]

must have popped.. nothing else makes sense

 

[Swarthy]

Who cares

 

[felmmando]

not surprised after his last performance, he didn't do anything against israel besides ditty boxin and staring him for five rounds.

Right on. I just don't understand why they didn't send the champion packing as well.

 

[SanDiego**]

If he pisses hot then they could just keep him under contract during his suspension for 2-4 years at no cost, and then cut him once the suspension is over. That brings no risk to their company, keeps him out of the competition, and costs them nothing. If you're a sociopath, it's the clear move to make. They've done that before.

That is also a possibility. We are all speculating this eerily mysterious series of events from yoel.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Spot on. WME, in my opinion, has absolutely watered down the sport. I watch every event, have for many years and I don't even know who 85% of the people are on most of these cards. Title shots are rotated between the top 3 or 4 guys in the division depending upon popularity of course.

I miss the days where even the unaired prelims were full of people you knew

Part of it is the fighters themselves. You don’t hear these top names out there clamoring for fights every three months. They’re picking and choosing their spots, trying to leverage more money, etc. Main event against RDA? No thanks, Chandler has other plans. Title eliminator against the legend Tony Ferguson? Dustin needs yet another raise first. Rematch against Adesanya? Whittaker needs a three month Christmas holiday and then we can discuss it. (Figueredo is about to have his third title fight in six months and fourth of 2020, so clearly when a guy is about it they’ll book the fights).

That’s fine, it’s their call, but it’s gonna mean that unknown fighters are needed for these cards.

 

[Rear Naked Toke]

Doubtful that the UFC contract is void and he's now free to sign with another promotion. Doesn't the UFC have exclusive matching rights for 12 months after they "cut" someone? So he's earning $380,000 per fight in the UFC now when he's cut. But if another promotion offers him $200,000 in the next 12 months, the UFC has automatic rights to sign him again for $200,000. Right?

So IMO if the UFC just doesn't want to pay Yoel $380K, this is a very smart move for them. They could avoid paying him, but also not risk losing him. Very smart decision if that's how the contracts work.

I think that's how cuts/ releases work. I think that's why no one's signing Anderson Silva right now.

Any promotion can sign Silva right now, they are choosing not to. The only time UFC has matching rights is when a fighter fulfills their contract and looks at offers from other promotions, which is usually a negotiation tactic on the fighter's end, hoping to cash in on a win or possibly a streak, for leverage towards a bigger UFC deal, not so much a big deal in another promotion. Even then, the rights dont always come into play because UFC will almost always re-sign a streaking fighter, usually before their current contract is even over, and most fighters are more than willing to stay. It's also been common practice for them to sign a new deal with a fighter prior to a title shot. This is to ensure that if they win the title that it's not at the end of their contract, where they could just jump ship for a bigger paycheck on the heels of a title win.

When a fighter is cut because they lost a couple, UFC isn't concerned with matching because they've already dismissed the value of the fighter in the promotion and have no interest in keeping them. Therefore they are immediately free to sign with another promotion.

Cuts are usually are a one sided decision, and releases are more of a mutual decision. This instance is very much a cut. UFC doesn't want Yoel anymore, for multiple reasons, and yes, his large paycheck is one of them. He's reaching the end of his career, is on a 3 fight skid, and his last fight was a title fight in which he put on arguably the worst performance of his career. Why risk paying out over a million dollars over his next 3 fights that he might lose one or all of and/or look like the Izzy fight?

Also, we have no idea what Yoel is actually being paid. The commissions don't even know. Any numbers released by the commissions are intentionally flawed. Dont get me wrong, they show the disclosed figures of the contract, but other money moves around behind the scenes in UFC. This has been in practice for years when it comes to their bigger names because they don't want competing promotions to know what their stars are actually being paid. It makes it harder for another promotion to make an offer that would result in a star leaving the UFC.

This is 100% a business decision that weighed risk versus reward. The UFC does not benefit from keeping Yoel, and they know that. UFC isn't making nearly as much money without a live gate, and this is one of their ways to cut costs. It's unfortunate for Yoel, but UFC writes the contracts and the language within them is always in their favor.

The house always wins.