Bellator MMA superstar and former UFC middleweight Yoel Romero has dropped a bombshell of a news- that he was once in the works to be pitted against Jake Paul, but the latter’s team caused the fight to be cancelled.
Romero said Jake and his team “didn’t want to face a real fighter”
Surprising to many combat sports fans, Jake Paul has become one of the biggest names in boxing in recent times. The YouTuber-turned-pugilist is 4-0 as a professional and recently defeated former UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley on 29th August via split decision.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69835410/1337174428.0.jpg "Yoel Romero claims a Jake Paul fight was in the works and reveals why it was dismissed 2")
‘The Problem Child’ of boxing has so far faced non-boxers in his professional career and even though Jake has his own ‘hit list‘ it is predictable that he will not go against a real boxer in the foreseeable future.
Boxing matches between non-boxers have picked up pace in recent times and after his release from the UFC, it was an option that Yoel Romero wanted to explore before he landed in Bellator MMA.
The four time UFC middleweight contender was interested in sparring against Jake Paul, who was just fresh off of his KO over Nate Robinson in last November, but his team opted Ben Askren over Romero, as the Cuban revealed to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.
“What happened was, initially Jake Paul wanted to do a fight with Yoel, but then when Yoel wanted to do it, the Paul team canceled the fight. Initially they wanted to do the fight with Yoel. That was when he was just getting out of the UFC, he had not signed with Bellator yet, and they said eventually no they don’t want Yoel… They decided to go with Ben Askren,” said Romero.
“They don’t want to face a real fighter. (The Paul brothers) are just trying to make it a show and they don’t want to ruin their show. They’re finding the easy fights. Even though (Logan) fought Mayweather, but the thing is, there’s a huge weight difference,” he added. [H/T MMANews]
Even though his desire of facing Jake Paul didn’t come to fruition, ‘Soldier Of God’ is just days away from making his Bellator debut against Phil Davis in the main event of Bellator 266 this Saturday.
