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Yoel Romero out of UFC on ESPN 15 co-main event

Yoel Romero at UFC 248 press conference
Yoel Romero at UFC 248 press conference

Yoel Romero has withdrawn from his planned UFC on ESPN 15 co-main event bout with Uriah Hall.

Romero pulled out of the bout because of undisclosed reasons. MMAWeekly.com sources verified the report, which was first revealed by BJPenn.com.

UFC on ESPN 15 features a bantamweight contenders bout between No. 5 ranked Pedro Munhoz and No. 8 ranked Frankie Edgar in the main event. The event takes place on Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Apex in Las Vegas.

Romero (13-5) is currently the No. 5 ranked middleweight in the world despite losing four of his last five bouts. For of those five bouts were for one version or another of the UFC middleweight title.

Most recently, Romero lost to current champion Israel Adesanya in the UFC 248 main event on March 7, just prior to the United States going into shutdown mode because of the global coronavirus pandemic. His three prior losses were to top contender Paulo Costa and twice to former champion Robert Whittaker.


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Hall (15-9) currently occupies the No. 9 slot in the UFC middleweight division. He had been hoping a win over Romero would propel him back into the upper crust of the division. Hall has won three of his four most recent bouts with his only defeat being at the hands of Costa.

It was unclear at the time of publication of the UFC would be able to secure a suitable opponent to keep Hall on the UFC on ESPN 15 fight card.