5 Times Yoel Romero stunned UFC fans with his explosive abilities inside the Octagon

#3 Stopping Machida in 2015

A stunning rush of violence saw Romero take out Lyoto Machida

After his win over Tim Kennedy in late 2014, Romero was clearly a title contender at 185lbs, but the title picture at the time was logjammed somewhat due to champion Chris Weidman’s defense against top contender Vitor Belfort being postponed on two occasions. The UFC attempted to match Romero with fellow contender Ronaldo Souza, but when that fight fell apart, the Cuban instead found himself faced with former Light-Heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida.

‘The Dragon’ was clearly Romero’s toughest fight to date, but ‘Soldier of God’ looked ready for the challenge. When the fight began, the first two rounds were extremely close; Machida perhaps edged the opener with his pinpoint striking, while the second was perhaps edged by Romero, who landed a couple of heavier blows. Despite the Cuban performing well though, nobody expected what came in the third round.

With Machida beginning to struggle to land clean shots due to Romero’s speed, ‘Soldier of God’ caught him unaware with a knee-tap takedown from the clinch – using his Olympic-level wrestling for the first time in the fight. And before ‘The Dragon’ could even look to reverse or escape, Romero suddenly opened up with some vicious elbows – bouncing the Brazilian’s head off the canvas and knocking him silly.

The finish wasn’t the prettiest, but it was definitely one of the more terrifying in UFC history, largely because of the sudden nature of Romero’s assault. More than any previous fight, this victory showed that ‘Soldier of God’ was a dangerous contender for the Middleweight title.