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Israel Adesanya will defend his middleweight championship against Yoel Romero at UFC 248 on Saturday night. But before they take center stage in Las Vegas, both main-event participants are set to join Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday.
It’s the first title defense for Adesanya (18-0), while Romero has lost three of his past four, all via decision.
Also scheduled for Monday are two women who made strong cases for a title opportunity at featherweight. Both Megan Anderson and Felicia Spencer earned first-round stoppages this past weekend. Has either emerged as the next challenger for Amanda Nunes?
Also set to join the show: Demetrious Johnson, Paul Felder, Luis Pena and Deron Winn.
Watch the show from 1-4 p.m. ET here.
Helwani Show lineup
And new? Yoel Romero is prepared
“He’s so funny.” @yoelromeromma has seen @darrentill2‘s jokes, but believes Till would take the fight if “life put him in my way” (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/tLfAuQebJa
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 2, 2020
Yoel Romero appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show sporting a black Miami Marlins cap with a special message in white print on the side: “And new.”
“Every time they give me the hat,” Romero said, “I win.”
Perhaps bad news for Israel Adesanya, who will defend the UFC middleweight title against Romero on Saturday night.
Romero said he’s confident that he can make weight for the UFC 248 main event, which has been a major issue for the muscular Cuban. He missed weight twice for UFC title fights, both in 2018.
Romero said that he’s 198 pounds, 13 over the middleweight limit of 185 pounds for championship bouts. That’s a positive sign, according to Romero, who said he’s ahead of schedule in his weight cut. He’s typically around 202 pounds on the Monday of a fight week.
Romero believes making weight in Las Vegas on Friday morning shouldn’t be a problem.
“You know what I do? Training, that’s the difference,” Romero said. “I have time for training camp. That’s it. There’s no excuses. The two times I missed weight, I tried to [make weight], but I know I can do it. … I don’t think about my weight for the fight. I’m thinking about the time for training camp. You need to lose your weight in training camp.”
Spencer says now is the time for a Nunes fight
Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night card in Norfolk, Virginia was a showcase for two women chasing a shot at Amanda Nunes and the UFC women’s featherweight championship. Megan Anderson had a highlight reel one-punch knockout of Norma Dumont, and after a one-fight buffer, Felicia Spencer earned a first-round TKO via referee stoppage with ground and pound.
In Spencer’s mind, she did everything she had to do to line herself up to fight Nunes for the belt next, largely because she holds one key advantage of Anderson — she beat Anderson by first-round submission last May.
“I didn’t think that it was going to be such a big debate, to be honest,” Spencer told Helwani. “It kind of surprised me after the fact. … I think it’s pretty obvious — I beat Megan less than a year ago. … I’m a fan of Megan. I think she’ll get a title shot. I’ll give her a title shot next. When I’m the champion, I’ll give her the rematch at that point. I think I earned it.”
Although she was aware that Anderson had put on a strong performance of her own, Spencer was already in the zone and focused on her own fight to come.
“To me, it was just a matter of showing up, doing my job impressively — which I think I did — and taking my shot at the title next. … I needed to make a statement, and I really wanted to make it as violent as possible — show a little bit of a different side that people haven’t seen as much of.”
Despite Nunes winning 10 straight — seven straight in title fights — Spencer feels like she learned a lot in Nunes’ most recent fight against Germaine de Randamie.
“It was a good performance, [but] we were starting to see an Amanda that was just taking people out in the first round a lot, just crazy finishes,” said Spencer. “It was a good reminder that she’s a human being. Just like Cris [Cyborg]. She’s has a gameplan, and sometimes things go really, really well when you have a game plan and you take people out in the first round. Sometimes you just have to grind through it.
“She doesn’t have a perfect record, she’s not unbeatable,” she continued. “I know she’s done a lot of [great] things in the last part of her career, but there’s definitely a lot of things I see that I can capitalize on.”
Nunes last two fights have been at bantamweight, but with the double champion actively calling for a 145-pound title defense as recently as Saturday night, Spencer feels like she’s ready to step into the spotlight. Despite being only nine fights into her pro career and three fights into her UFC career, Spencer has already won the Invicta FC women’s featherweight title and took Cyborg the distance — something only Spencer and Holly Holm have done since 2008.
“I’m ready,” said Spencer. “If I wait another year, is it really going to be that much different? I just came off another great fight camp, feel better than ever.”
Megan Anderson: I have a feeling Spencer will get Nunes
After posting a first-round stoppage Saturday that earned her a performance-of-the-night bonus, Megan Anderson said she was in a perfect spot to land a chance to challenge featherweight champ Amanda Nunes.
Her biggest challenge to that opportunity was Felicia Spencer, who fought later on the on the card and posted her own first-round stoppage.
Nunes tweeted that she liked both contenders and would leave it up to UFC president Dana White.
Anderson said Monday she has an idea how that decision will turn out.
“If they want me to fight Amanda next, I’m going to be 100 percent ready,” Anderson said. “But I also wouldn’t be surprised if they gave it to Felicia. I do understand she has a win over me.
“I have a feeling that they’re going to give it to Felicia. They seem to like her, and they like to give her those types of opportunities. If that’s the case, I feel she’s an incredible athlete, she’s a top competitor and I wish her all the best. But it’s going to happen when it’s going to happen, so there’s no point in me worrying about it. I’m not going to lose any sleep over me worrying if they don’t give me a title shot. I know it’s going to come when it’s supposed to happen. If they don’t give me the shot, I want to keep consistently fighting and racking up the wins and showcasing why I should be fighting for the title.”
Anderson said Nunes will be a tougher opponent for Spencer than was Cris Cyborg, who won a unanimous decision over Spencer on July 27, 2019.
“Amanda is very physically strong and she’s very well-rounded, so I feel like it’s going to be a tougher fight for Felicia than the Cyborg fight,” Anderson said.
Current guest: Luis Peña
Still to come:
3:20 p.m.: Israel Adesanya
Adesanya will discuss his first title defense in Saturday’s UFC 248 main event.