{"id":267987,"date":"2018-01-16T15:18:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=267987"},"modified":"2018-01-16T15:18:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T23:18:09","slug":"video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO |  Luke Rockhold Beleives Yoel Romero is an Easier Fight than Robert Whittaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3nQDU3DzlEg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The combat world wept when <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-221\/breaking-robert-whittaker-forced-ufc-221-injury-luke-rockhold-gets-new-opponent\/\">Robert Whittaker had to back out of his fight<\/a> with Luke Rockhold, especially since it was going to set the middleweight division right for the first time in roughly two years. However, the tears quickly dried when we learned we were going to get Yoel Romero fighting Rockhold at UFC 221 instead. It&#8217;s a fight that we&#8217;ve somehow never got, but now here it is right in front of us. Luke Rockhold is fine with the change in opponent as well, which he believes is an easier fight than he was in before hand.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s not an ideal situation, of course. I\u2019m going across the world to fight a guy that I could fight down the street. I wanted to fight [Robert] Whittaker. It\u2019s a fight I\u2019ve been seeking for a long time and I thought it was a good time to make it happen, but obviously he\u2019s got some health issues. I wish him the best and I know Whittaker\u2019s not a man to run away from anything. I respect that kid and I wish him the best. I hope it\u2019s not too serious.\u00a0Yoel [Romero] was the option right off the bat, and I\u2019m ready to fight as long as the money\u2019s right, the belt\u2019s on the line.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LukeRockhold?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LukeRockhold<\/a> believes Yoel Romero has &#8220;more holes to expose&#8221; in his game than Robert Whittaker. Do you agree? Watch show live: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/11sYrEm5Ug\">https:\/\/t.co\/11sYrEm5Ug<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YA6ZPRylhf\">pic.twitter.com\/YA6ZPRylhf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MMAFighting\/status\/952970563638657024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI think Yoel has more holes to expose in his game. Whittaker\u2019s tighter. He\u2019s harder to get to, whereas Yoel will kinda leave himself open. Very similar fights, but I like this match-up. [Romero]&#8217;s body is suspect. I think he can only push so hard for so long. Mentally, I think he has it. I mean, he has the will to win even when he\u2019s tired. It\u2019s about making his body quit and that\u2019s what I plan to do. He\u2019s got limitations, he\u2019s got holes, so I\u2019m going to pick him apart and I\u2019m going to push his body to that breaking point. I know he\u2019s going to come forward, I know he\u2019s dangerous, I know he\u2019s not going to quit, but I know his body will give out, and I\u2019m going to push him to that level.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2018\/1\/15\/16893396\/luke-rockhold-says-yoel-romero-has-more-holes-to-expose-than-robert-whittaker\">Luke Rockhold on The MMA Hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Luke Rockhold was on a five-fight win streak before suffering his upset at the hands of Michael Bisping, which was the catalyst to the UFC middleweight divisions&#8217; log jam. He rebounded back against former WSOF double champ David Branch in September of last year and now he&#8217;s looking to win back his title. Yoel Romero was in a similar position after being derailed from his eight-fight win streak by Robert Whittaker. The winner of Rockhold and Romero&#8217;s fight is slated to unify the middleweight titles with Whittaker.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\">BJPenn.com<\/a> on 1\/16\/2018.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The combat world wept when Robert Whittaker had to back out of his fight with Luke Rockhold, especially since it was going to set the middleweight division right for the first time in roughly two years. However, the tears quickly dried when we learned we were going to get Yoel Romero fighting Rockhold at UFC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54442,"featured_media":267988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10150,2682,10179],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VIDEO | Luke Rockhold Beleives Yoel Romero is an Easier Fight than Robert Whittaker | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VIDEO | Luke Rockhold Beleives Yoel Romero is an Easier Fight than Robert Whittaker | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The combat world wept when Robert Whittaker had to back out of his fight with Luke Rockhold, especially since it was going to set the middleweight division right for the first time in roughly two years. However, the tears quickly dried when we learned we were going to get Yoel Romero fighting Rockhold at UFC [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-16T23:18:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RockholdRomero.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Golightly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Golightly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Justin Golightly\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/522e5fec9637cffa3bac682a2da4afa2\"},\"headline\":\"VIDEO | Luke Rockhold Beleives Yoel Romero is an Easier Fight than Robert Whittaker\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-16T23:18:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-16T23:18:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\"},\"wordCount\":525,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Luke Rockhold\",\"Videos\",\"Yoel Romero\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\",\"name\":\"VIDEO | Luke Rockhold Beleives Yoel Romero is an Easier Fight than Robert Whittaker | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-16T23:18:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-16T23:18:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-luke-rockhold-beleives-yoel-romero-easier-fight-robert-whittaker\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Videos\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"VIDEO | Luke Rockhold Beleives Yoel Romero is an Easier Fight than Robert Whittaker\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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