Yoel Romero is putting Bellator's light heavyweight division on notice.
Romero (13-5) signed a contract with Bellator and is expected to debut at 205-pounds sometime next year. The news was first reported by ESPN's Ariel Helwani and the signing was also confirmed by Romero's manager, Malki Kawa.
Initially, Bellator officials passed on Romero, however, after further talks last week, and with a new chapter at 205, the two sides were able to come to an agreement very recently.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) December 14, 2020
Kawa teased a future for Romero in Bellator's middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions.
185,205, and heavyweight
— malki kawa (@malkikawa) December 14, 2020
Romero, 43, is coming off a three-fight skid; however, the losses were razor-thin decision losses to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, title challenger Paulo Costa and former champ Robert Whittaker. The "Soldier of God" has a collection of scalps including Luke Rockhold, Chris Weidman, Ronaldo Souza, Lyoto Machida, Tim Kennedy and Derek Brunson.
The recent additions of Romero and Anthony "Rumble" Johnson add weight to Bellator President Scott Coker's claims that his promotion arguably has a stronger light heavyweight division than UFC.
Jan Blachowicz, Glover Teixeira, Thiago Santos, Dominick Reyes, Aleksandar Rakic.
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) December 14, 2020
Vadim Nemkov, Yoel Romero, Anthony Johnson, Corey Anderson, Ryan Bader.
In a hypothetical UFC vs. Bellator card, whose LHW top 5 do you favor to come out ahead?
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