Yoel Romero has dazzled fans in his first two bouts of 2018, first clubbing former champ Luke Rockhold into unconsciousness in February, then engaging current champ Robert Whittaker in one of the year’s best fights in June. Unfortunately, both of Romero’s 2018 bouts have been served with a side of controversy, as he failed to make weight on both occasions. It’s for this reason that surging middleweight contender Israel Adesanya has found it hard to root for him.

In Adesanya’s eyes, Romero’s repeated failure to make weight is encroaching on cheating.

“Look at Romero in his last fight,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting’s Peter Carroll of Yoel Romero. “Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t really care in the end because it was such a good fight, but regardless of what happened I didn’t want Romero to win.”