Fight History: "Rockhold vs. Romero"

Saturday, UFC will return to action in the country of Australia with UFC 221: “Rockhold vs. Romero”. In the headliner, Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero will clash in a middleweight bout with an interim title on the line. Before this interim title bout goes down, it's essential to provide some history on these two title challengers while highlighting their accomplishments inside the fight game.

Luke Rockhold

MMA Record: 16–3

Total wins: 16

Wins by knockout: 6

Wins by submission: 8

Last three wins: David Branch, Chris Weidman, and Lyoto Machida

Two-time former MMA champion (UFC and Strikeforce), Rockhold has secured 16 wins throughout his professional career with eight coming by way of submission and six via KO/TKO. He started his professional career back in 2007 at MotM: Melee on the Mountain where he scored a first-round submission win over Mike Martinez. The following year, Rockhold captured nine consecutive victories under the Strikeforce banner. While competing in Strikeforce, he captured wins over competitors such as Ronaldo Souza, Keith Jardine, and Tim Kennedy. Throughout 2014 and 2015 and while competing in the UFC, Rockhold enjoyed a five-fight winning streak where he picked up key victories over former titleholders Michael Bisping, Lyoto Machida and Chris Weidman.

Yoel Romero 

MMA Record: 12–2

Total wins: 12

Wins by knockout: 10

Last three wins: Chris Weidman, Ronaldo Souza, and Lyoto Machida

Throughout his professional MMA career, Romero achieved ten of his 12 wins by way of knockout or technical knockout. In all his professional bouts, he has displayed incredible striking skills as well as excellent takedown ability. Romero is an Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling as well as a former amateur wrestling world champion. Romero made his UFC and middleweight debut in 2013 where he scored a first-round KO victory over Clifford Starks at UFC on Fox: “Henderson vs. Melendez”. After that, Romero would then go on an impressive eight-fight winning streak in which he picked up wins over Chris Weidman, Lyoto Machida, and Derek Brunson among others. Impressively, in only just nine UFC appearances Romero rightfully earned six performance bonuses.

Collectively, these two elite competitors have a total 24 wins by way of stoppage which means this fight has all the potential of being a five-round war. Also, this main card will feature talents such as Mark Hunt, Curtis Blaydes, and Jake Matthews among others. This fight card will take place at the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia and should be fun to watch.