Manager: We want to ‘sue’ athletic commission for stopping Yoel Romero’s weight cut early

There was a lot of controversy surrounding Yoel Romero’s weight cut for UFC 225, and his management will be looking to assemble a legal team to sue the Illinois athletic commission for what they feel was a breach of conduct at Friday’s weigh-ins.

Romero, a former Olympic silver medalist, initially hit the scales one pound over the designated 185 pound weight limit on Friday but was given an extra two hours to make 185 pounds.

But, according to ‘The Soldier of God’ and his manager, Malki Kawa, Illinois officials cut his weight cut one hour early, resulting in the Cuban weighing in .2 lbs overweight and being fined 20 percent of his purse. Romero was also ineligible to win the middleweight title, even if he were to beat Robert Whittaker at UFC 225.

His manager, Kawa, told Ariel Helwani on a recent edition of The MMA Hour that he is looking to get three attorneys together in an effort to sue the Illinois athletic commission for misconduct.

“I’ve already, this morning, got together three attorneys to look into the matter and to check to see what’s up. And if there’s something I can do we’re definitely gonna sue the Chicago commission,” Kawa stated. “I’m not gonna play around with them.”

As well as being forced to forfeit 20 percent of his purse to Whittaker, Romero also missed out on the $50,000 Fight of The Night bonus, which Kawa will be looking to reverse.

Romero, who fought and lost to Whittaker in an interim middleweight title bout earlier in 2017, dropped a split decision to ‘The Reaper’ this past Saturday after a Fight of The Year candidate at Chicago’s United Center.

Romero had Whittaker badly hurt at several points throughout the contest, but Whittaker, who retained his middleweight title, landed with much more volume and busted Romero’s eye early in the fight. Both fighters put on a gutsy performance and were admitted to the local hospital, with 27-year-old Whittaker having suffered a broken thumb in the first round.

Both men are likely to take some time off before any talk of a rematch is discussed, and it’s highly unlikely Romero’s legal team will win their appeal against the Illinois athletic commission. The commission, after all, could have refused to give Romero any added time to cut the extra weight.