Yoel Romero at HW

[Flboycanscrap2]

All this recent talk about Yoel being willing to fight DC or moving up the LHW if he loses to Whittaker again, got me thinking about what success he could have at HW.

I know all the weight cut=ducking bros will try to say that he'd get smashed and that fighters that cut weight are just scared of the divisions above them and know they would lose.

But...let's look at a few things.

No one has ever shown the level of athleticism and speed at HW that we have seen out of Yoel. No one at HW is as good a wrestler as Yoel. Yoel has megaton power in a variety of different strikes. Yoel missed weight recently and is easily 205 shredded, and he will still be ripped with 15lbs of pure fat on him at 220.

So...is anyone at HW quick or crafty enough to ever get in on Yoel's legs and attempt to grapplefuck him? Is anyone quick or crafty enough to avoid his power strike blitzes?

What is the ceiling of Yoel's potential success at HW? Can his power follow him up to HW? Can Yoel do to HWs what Melvin Manhoef (another super jacked 185er) did to Mark Hunt (best HW chin ever)? Will he get wall and stalled and gas? Will he get caught like by Feijao?

Thoughts?


EDIT:

New point: How much bigger/better is Fedor or Mirko really than Yoel? Mirko has the same reach and never really got above 220 and Fedor has all kinds of fat.

Current UFC HW Rankings below:

Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Alexander Volkov
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Junior Dos Santos
5 Derrick Lewis
7 Mark Hunt
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Andrei Arlovski
10 Aleksei Oleinik
11 Stefan Struve
12 Tai Tuivasa
13 Shamil Abdurakhimov
14 Justin Willis
15 Junior Albini

 

[mayorcrazyeyes]

His potential is through the roof.

 

[reddhelium]

heavyweight dc would chew romero up

 

[jojoRed]

Id tell him to retire for a year outside of USADA, then come back bigger via however he wants, and then wreck a fool with the bone ashed cannon.

 

[KhabibbeatsTony]

Yoel needs his strength advantage to be competitive. People are scared of him at 185 because he can bully them around. Bigger heavier guys wouldn't care and simply walk him down

no to mention his atrocious output

 

[cburm]

When he poops his pants as a hw theyl be blown out cause hes not cutting anymore

 

[Flboycanscrap2]

Yoel needs his strength advantage to be competitive. People are scared of him at 185 because he can bully them around. Bigger heavier guys wouldn't care and simply walk him down

no to mention his atrocious output

Walk him down? Are you saying that Yoel's power shots won't be able to affect them? Are you serious?

 

[Flboycanscrap2]

heavyweight dc would chew romero up

Any reasoning you would like to include?

 

[cburm]

How if whitt beats him hows he have more pot at hw rather see whitt fight at hw then a nut hitting pants pooping in the cage dirty fighter losing to smaller guys. He be dogfood at hw

 

[Anomonis]

Why would he ever go to HW? LHW would be fine and he would probably have the best chance there outside of MW if he does want to change divisions. I don't see any logic in jumping up two divisions when there is no reason.

 

[KhabibbeatsTony]

Walk him down? Are you saying that Yoel's power shots won't be able to affect them? Are you serious?

everyone has heavy hands at hw buddy. Not to mention longer reach. Since his entire game is based in his wrestling I just don't see it. He's a big fish small pond type fighter in terms of weightclasses

 

[Flboycanscrap2]

Why would he ever go to HW? LHW would be fine and he would probably have the best chance there outside of MW if he does want to change divisions. I don't see any logic in jumping up two divisions when there is no reason.

I am not saying he should. It is strictly hypothetical if he would. My contention is that because of his wrestling pedigree and athleticism he may be able to negate the number one problem with going up a division (grapplefucked by a bigger guy). At the same time he could replicate with Melvin (who has fought as low as welterweight) did to Hunt to many of the lumbering HWs.

 

[Odoylerules4lyf]

He would take down those unathletic slobs with ease. I don't think he'd be champion but I honestly think he'd do fine.

 

[soulsstealer]

weight is very important to a wrestler thats why they cut huge amounts. and yoel is a wrestler. i dont think it would work out too well. he could beat a few scrubs i suppose.

 

[GOATER]

He has been at 200-210 lbs before he cuts, for his whole life.

Not sure if he can properly bulk to 225lbs or above....He might not be able to carry more muscle mass(unless he roids).


Not only that but if he just gains fat, sure he will still be big/shredded but it could make his cardio way fucking worse.


Lots of unknowns here, but it will be intredasting.

 

[Anomonis]

I am not saying he should. It is strictly hypothetical if he would. My contention is that because of his wrestling pedigree and athleticism he may be able to negate the number one problem with going up a division (grapplefucked by a bigger guy). At the same time he could replicate with Melvin (who has fought as low as welterweight) did to Hunt to many of the lumbering HWs.

Ah I see. Well he might stand a chance at HW too, since he is quite skilled, and HW is pretty weak right now. It's probably more impressive to me if he just stays at MW which is much more competitive.

 

[Flboycanscrap2]

everyone has heavy hands at hw buddy. Not to mention longer reach. Since his entire game is based in his wrestling I just don't see it. He's a big fish small pond type fighter in terms of weightclasses

Entire game is based on his wrestling? Have you ever seen him fight before? He almost always stands and bangs and has 11 KOs in 13 wins. Gauge his success. Is 50/50, above or below?

 

[Alxair]

Yoel cannot bulk to a good size to fight at HW under USADA at his current age. He'd be considerably fatter and gas earlier while giving up reach.

LHW he could do, HW is too much.

 

[reddhelium]

Any reasoning you would like to include?

you stated:

"No one has ever shown the level of athleticism and speed at HW that we have seen out of Yoel."

we dont know how romero at hw would fare with the extra 40 or so pounds. but we do know how dc performed at hw- he was faster and more athletic than most hw's he faced.

"No one at HW is as good a wrestler as Yoel."

dc is an olympic caliber wrestler, and trains with cain. again, no idea if romero would be able to out wrestle hw's, but we've seen dc do it already.

"Yoel has megaton power in a variety of different strikes."

dont know if yoel's power would carry over to hw, but dc has eaten many powerful shots from hw's (as well as rumble johnson) and still came forward.

conclusion:

i feel like romero has nothing for hw dc. dc would grind him down and finish him.

 

[Flboycanscrap2]

Yoel cannot bulk to a good size to fight at HW under USADA at his current age. He'd be considerably fatter and gas earlier while giving up reach.

LHW he could do, HW is too much.

Does he need to bulk at all? Will 210-215 be enough due to his physical gifts? He is magnitudes faster than any HW with 64% striking defense at MW.