Adesanya vs. Romero official for UFC 248

UFC 248 has a new main event.

Yoel Romero (13-4) will challenge Israel Adesanya (18-0) for the UFC middleweight belt on March 7th in Las Vegas.

The two were engaged in a bit of a social media spat. Each side showed interest in booking the fight, as did UFC president Dana White. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto finally confirmed yesterday that this fight would, indeed, happen:

Adesanya explained why he wanted this fight, both complementing and demeaning the Cuban former Olympian: “No one asked to fight Yoel. I said I want to fight the baddest [expletive] in there. So we called him out even though he’s on a two-fight losing streak. He’s lost three of his last four.”

This will be Adesanya’s first fight (and first title defence) since his second round knockout of Robert Whittaker at UFC 243.  

Romero, on the other hand, is coming off a controversial decision loss to Paulo Costa.

Whatever one thinks of the merits of this fight, fit is certainly the most “fun” of all the potential middleweight matchups at the moment.