Some guys just love to fight. Even when they’re getting their butt kicked. After watching Ultimate Fight Night 35, I’m positive that Yoel Romero is one of those guys.
For the first 10 minutes of his fight, Derek Brunson out struck and out wrestled the Olympian. Brunson even bounced a left high kick off Yoel’s head that looked like it would have felled an elephant. But it didn’t even faze the Cuban. If anything, Yoel looked almost gleeful to take it. The tougher things got, the more he seemed to enjoy it.
Let me rephrase that, because the point bears repeating. Yoel looked happy to be getting hurt. I swear, at one point he licked his lips like a starving man staring at an all you can eat buffet.
Many fighters--maybe even a majority of them--turn off their win instinct once they realize their opponent is laying a beating on them. It’s a subconscious thing, I believe. They stop trying to win. Instead, they simply try to survive. Sure, they still go through the motions--they throw punches, they shoot for take downs, they work for submissions--but not with the same gusto as before.
Even while Yoel was losing the first two rounds, he wore a mischievous smile as if he knew something we didn’t. He knew that he was simply too athletic, too powerful, too skilled and too determined to lose.
And he was right, of course. The beating he gave Derek Brunson in the 3rd round was hard to watch, especially when the referee made him throw way more spleen-rupturing elbow strikes than was necessary. It was a spectacular come back. And a chilling one.
That’s a fighter, ladies and gentlemen. The kind of guy I’d want to have my back in a bar fight. The kind of guy who wouldn’t hesitate even for a millisecond to throw down against an entire football team. The kind of guy who would probably fight for free. That’s Yoel.
I normally associate this unadulterated love for fighting with guys like Chuck Liddell, Travis Fulton, and Tank Abbott. These guys won their fair share of fights (especially Liddell--and no one has fought more than Fulton) but none of them would would be confused for an Olympic level athlete once they took their shirts off. These were work-hard, play-hard sort of guys who were just as comfortable lifting a beer as lifting a barbell.
Yoel is a silver medalist in wrestling. We’re talking creme de la creme. The sort of dedication it takes to perform at that level is unimaginable. But it doesn’t just take hard work. There are athletes that put in just as much blood, sweat and tears into their training but they will never medal in the Olympic Games. That’s because it also takes natural born ability to succeed at that level. Yoel has it.
And that is scary. He combines the heart and blood lust of a Chuck Liddell with an Olympian’s natural ability. That’s a destructive combination. And though he was stopped with strikes back in 2011 at a weight 20 pounds heavier and against a guy who looked about 50 pounds heavier than that, Yoel displayed a solid chin against Brunson, shaking off his head kick as if it were a love pat. With that mix of skill, ability and tenacity you have the makings of a fighter who could be destined for greatness.
Do yourselves a favor and keep an eye on this guy. Something tells me we’ll be seeing a lot more of him.
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