White Comments on Romero’s Release, Says Many More Coming

Recently a lot of eyebrows were likely raised throughout the MMA world, following the news that Yoel Romero has been released by the UFC. Well, following UFC Vegas 16, Dana White commented on why the promotion has let Romero go, and he also reported many, many more cuts are coming.

White reports many more cuts are coming

A couple of days ago, Romero’s manager, Mallki Kawa, confirmed that the powerful wrestler and the UFC have parted ways. Although Romero has lost three straight, there hadn’t been any widespread speculation that he was on the chopping block.

After all, his last loss to middleweight champ, Israel Adesanya, and Romero has been a top, middleweight contender for years.

So, after UFC Vegas 16 wrapped up, White was asked to comment on Romero’s release. The UFC President said this (quote via MMA Fighting).

“It’s not just Yoel,” White said. “We’re going to go through some serious cuts here at the end of the year.

We’re probably going to have 60 cuts before the first of the year. Yoel has lost four of his last five.

He’s 44 years old. Our roster is very inflated right now. We’re going to have some big cuts coming before the end of the year.

You’re going to see a lot of names going here in the next several weeks.”

And when asked if there were any other reasons, the Cuban star was released, White said no.

“Nothing like that,” White said. “No, we’re just literally starting to go through the list.

He’s 44, he’s lost four of his last five and these are the tough decisions you’ve got to make.”

Reaction?

It’s going to be interesting to see how observers react to White’s comments here.

While Romero has incurred multiple losses lately, and he was the oldest fighter on the UFC roster, there’s no question he can still hang with the best of the best.

So, in this case, it certainly looks like this was a cost-saving measure by the promotion. It should also be pointed out that 37 contracts were handed out in the latest season of Dana White’s Contender Series.

In other words, there are good reasons to believe some other high profile fighters, with decent contracts, will be cut soon.