Yoel Romero shares thoughts on potential fight against Alex Pereira, outlines gameplan to beat 'Poatan'

Alex Pereira is the most talked-about UFC fighter not named Conor McGregor. Thus, it is only sensible that Yoel Romero has chosen to discuss a potential fight with 'Poatan'. On his new YouTube podcast, Overdogs Espanol, Romero touches on how he would approach a bout with Pereira.

While the Cuban phenom has not been a UFC fighter since 2020 when he exited the promotion on a three-fight losing streak, he is still fighting under the Bellator banner, and the competitive fire in him continues to burn. A fight with Pereira would, as he said, be an honor.

"A lot of people talk and they think I would fight against the big champ, Pereira, in the UFC, 205 pounds. He has plenty of experience, is a born striker. It would be an honor to fight people with caliber."

Regarding a game plan for a hypothetical clash, the multi-time UFC title challenger spoke about offering the 205-pound champion different looks by mixing up his takedowns and strikes.

"He's a man born of a woman, same as me. Everything is possible when you believe. He has two hands, I also have two hands. All can happen. The strategy to beat Alex is doing a well-mixed fight. You can't wrestle and wrestle. You can't do striking and striking."

Check out Yoel Romero talk about fighting Alex Pereira (2:37):

The matchup, however, will likely never happen. Pereira is arguably the face of the UFC at the moment, while Romero left the promotion on a three-fight losing streak and is now 47 and fighting in Bellator. The UFC will likely opt against signing him, least of all given his lapses during past title fights.

The only possibility would be Pereira parting ways with the UFC and signing with Bellator.

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Alex Pereira and Yoel Romero have an opponent in common

Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya are rivals, having faced each other four times: twice in kickboxing and twice in MMA. 'Poatan,' to his credit, has three wins over Adesanya, while the Nigerian-New Zealander has one. Meanwhile, 'The Last Stylebender' has also fought Yoel Romero in the past.

Check out Alex Pereira's UFC 281 win over Israel Adesanya:

Unfortunately, his bout with 'The Soldier of God' was a widely panned affair, criticized for its low output, which is a common consequence of pitting two counter-strikers against each other. Ultimately, Adesanya won via unanimous decision by landing low kicks.