Adesanya To Defend Title Against Romero, After Costa Injury?

If you were looking forward to Israel Adesanya defending his UFC middleweight title against Paulo Costa, you’re going to have to wait a little while.

After ‘The Last Stylebender’ beat Robert Whittaker in front of 57,000 fans at UFC 243 to win the strap, it was confirmed that his first title defence would be against the unbeaten Brazilian. However, according to Dana White, Costa has had surgery and will be out until the summer in 2020.

Speaking to The Schmo, the UFC president said that the UFC were working on another title defence for Adesanya.

“He (Costa) had surgery on his bicep, so he’s out for eight months. But we are working on something else with Israel right now.”

But it won’t be Jon Jones. Asked if we could see a superfight next between the two, Dana was quick to shoot down the idea.

“He just won the title, to do a Jones superfight right now doesn’t make sense. There’s guys in his own weight division that he can fight.”

With Costa and Jones ruled out, it’s looking like Yoel Romero will be Adesanya’s first challenger to his crown. Within an hour of Dana’s conversation with ‘The Schmo’ being posted online, the ‘Soldier Of God’ took to social media to send a message to the 185lbs champion.

In the last hour, Adesanya has responded to Romero, seemingly agreeing to the fight and responding with Romero’s own saying, ‘I see you soon boi’.

If Romero gets the nod, it will be his fourth scheduled title fight in his last five fights. The 42 year old is coming off a razor close unanimous decision loss to Costa at UFC 241. In his three previous fights to that, he lost two close five round wars to Robert Whittaker and scored a spectacular knockout win over Luke Rockhold.

Do you like the matchup between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa?


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