'Uninterested' MMA promotions reportedly fighting to sign Yoel Romero after UFC release

Yoel Romero's status post-UFC release has been a bit confusing. The only thing that Yoel Romero has stated since is that he intends to start a Cuban Coffee shop in December.

Initially, Bellator and PFL were two promotions who seemingly rejected the idea of signing Yoel Romero. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and Combate Americas were the first to vocally state their desire to sign the Cuban.

For Combate Americas, they would make an exception to their rule of signing young talent for Yoel Romero - stating that a 'Superfight' vs Tito Ortiz would be the direction to go in.

However, it seems as though the other promotions have changed their mind about Yoel Romero. Ariel Helwani reported that the promotions that were initially not interested are preparing or already have made an offer for the 43-year-old Cuban:

Things are heating up again in the Yoel Romero sweepstakes, I’m told. Of note, promotions that were initially not interested are now interested and preparing offers or have already made an offer. No final decision at the moment.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) December 10, 2020

It's interesting that these promotions seemingly backtracked from their initial stance on signing the Soldier Of God. What's more interesting is how quiet Yoel Romero has been about the whole ordeal. Dana White stated that UFC had to let him go since he had lost four of his last five fights.

Why did the MMA promotions backtrack on their initial disinterest in Yoel Romero?

While it seemed like it was a similar case to Anderson Silva, that turned out not to be the case. However, given the pattern of promotions stating no interest for specific former UFC fighters, it appears as though these promotions do so to try to reduce fighters' bargaining power.

If so, it's a bad practice by promotions, who are trying to make the most out of their fighters and pay them as little as they possibly can. In some cases, perhaps the promotions simply couldn't afford to pay a fighter of Yoel Romero's caliber. Either way, it's good to see that he can use different promotions' offers as leverage for a good contract.