Manager wants Daniel Cormier title fight once Yoel Romero moves up to light heavyweight

After missing the mark for the middleweight limit for two title fights in a row, the need for Yoel Romero to move up in weight became quite clear. During Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN on Monday, manager Malki Kawa did reveal that talks have begun for this new career move for “The Soldier of God.”

“So we are talking to UFC about him moving up to light heavyweight,” Kawa said (transcript via MMA Mania). “And I think what we’re going to propose to them; well to be honest they offered us the Alexander Gustafsson fight (for UFC 227 on August 4th) and we accepted it.”

“But Gustafsson needed to fight in August and Yoel wanted to fight later because he has to have surgery, he broke his orbital. So there are talks for him to fight at light heavyweight.”

Romero’s last fight was a title rematch against Robert Whittaker, which took place last June 9^th in Chicago at UFC 225. While he did lose via unanimous decision, Kawa wants his fighter to immediately be in title contender status once the move up to 205 pounds is finalized.

“So I was looking at his record and looking at some of the people he’s beat, and I don’t know what the fans will think about Yoel Romero and Daniel Cormier title fight since Daniel wants big fights and I think that would be the biggest fight to make,” Kawa said.

“When I look at this, and I don’t know how UFC would feel but Yoel Romero has beaten on his record five champions,” he continued. “Three UFC and two Strikeforce champions. He’s a monster in the Octagon.”

From his end, Cormier is looking to defend his light heavyweight strap against Mauricio Rua, right before a potential heavyweight title fight against Brock Lesnar some time in 2019.