Sowing And Reaping: Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero 2

Photo courtesy of @SnackMuay

There’s often a sort of purity implicit in considering a fight one of the best ever -- great fights don’t necessarily show one man to be far superior to the other, but they do generally result in clarity on how one compares to the other. This tends to mean that the best fights of all time don’t have too many caveats about them -- factors like mid-fight injuries or incredibly old fighters out of their prime take away from that purity, in that they cheapen the conclusions that can be drawn from the fight. Perhaps this is one reason that the consensus best fights of all time tend to be title fights; while it’s a system that has been destroyed by current management, fighting theoretically doesn’t get more decisive nor meritocratic than the best man in the division against the second-best man in the division. There’s purity in meaninglessness too — for instance, Calvin Kattar vs. Shane Burgos was a great fight and literally nothing but a great fight — but what one won’t necessarily find is a fight that can truly defeat parenthetical chaos.

In that sense, the Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero fights shouldn’t have been as great as they were — the contextual underpinnings of both fights were intricate in the worst ways, to the point where it seemed that Whittaker had put his career into jeopardy for very little actual reward. Their UFC 213 meeting saw Whittaker get injured one round in, and both men fought for the attention of an unlikely champion who certainly had no claim to being the best in the world — and the second fight saw another injury for Whittaker after a career-threatening sickness, a weight miss that took away all official stakes, and a contentious decision. Simultaneously, where the first fight was perhaps the gutsiest performance in MMA history, the rematch was a defined response to it — informed thoroughly by his first seven rounds with the young champion, Yoel Romero made adjustments that no 41-year old should be making. It was a style matchup made in heaven, with two of the most thoughtful strikers that 185 had ever seen in very different ways, and each unit of entropy only made Robert Whittaker’s eventual and narrow victory even more absurd.

Rounds 1 and 2: Blitzkrieg Bob

All things considered, Romero’s first bout with Robert Whittaker had been one of his more comprehensible performances — and specifically with regard to Romero, that didn’t mean great things. For a fighter whose game up until that point had been to concede numbers and rounds to remain a step ahead of his opponent tactically — consistently landing the shots that mattered from a position of conventional deficit — Romero worked hard early in the first Whittaker fight for virtually no reward; an incidental injury to Whittaker’s leg aside, rounds 1 and 2 were exhaustingly Pyrrhic victories for the Cuban that seemed to run against his usual process. Accordingly, rounds 1 and 2 in Whittaker/Romero 2 were owned completely by the champion; Romero seemed to focus more on enforcing an improved defensive game under Whittaker’s steady and compounding assault, doing a solid job of it as he kept himself in position to implement answers to specific reads later.

In the first round, Romero’s defense largely hinged on a tight high-guard — this worked out decently for much of the round, but as the fight progressed, Romero turned to a cross-guard. The flared lead elbow and shoulder gave Romero some protection from the rear hand, as his raised rear hand could catch Whittaker’s left hook — this enabled Romero’s counterpunching more than a rigid high-guard would, and also made it somewhat difficult to punch around without the risk of hand damage on an elbow.

However, Romero’s strategic choice didn’t go quite as well as it could've — in contrast to other fights where Romero’s defensive nous and counterpunching threat had been able to severely limit early volume, Robert Whittaker dealt very real damage in the early frames (especially in the second round, where it seemed that the fight may have been slipping away from Romero completely). Against a shorter opponent who made the choice to fight from orthodox this time, Whittaker’s offense largely hinged on his brilliant lead hand:

Romero’s insistence upon high-guards made some level of sense, but it also obviously couldn’t be an all-encompassing defense, and Whittaker’s educated combination work did a better and better job circumventing it throughout the fight. The most obvious way was by drawing the guard of Romero inward with the jab, then looping around it; Whittaker attempted this from the rear side, as with the head kick and the overhand…

…or from the lead, with the left hook. Whittaker’s usual jab-hook changeup didn’t get as much shine in this fight as it often does, as Romero’s conservatism limited it a fair bit, but he still attempted it a couple times (including once inverted; Whittaker drawing out the reaction to the left hook, then jabbing up the center).

Of course, there was also the classic answer to the high guard, which is “hit other places” — while Whittaker’s kicks did most of the lifting in that regard, the end of the first round saw him flash the jab to raise Romero’s guard and land a clean and hard combination to his body.

Yoel Romero threatened the left hook counter throughout the fight, finding it the first time he threw it, but Whittaker’s proactive defense has been one of the strongest parts of his game; Whittaker lowering his level and bringing his head offline as he jabbed or threw the straight allowed him to rack up a meaningful lead on the Cuban, despite his proficiency on the counter (including with terrifying spinning backfists).

Romero did very little on the lead early in the fight, but Whittaker also had answers when he did — again off that lead hand. Whittaker did a nice job intercepting the charges of Romero with the jab, and even started walking the stockier wrestler onto lead uppercuts as he entered in round 2.

However, Whittaker also continued the tactics he improvised at UFC 213 when he lost the faculties to play his usual game — linear kicking was one of Whittaker’s more important tools when entering with the jab was compromised by his knee, and instead of abandoning them, Whittaker integrated them into his usual strategy. While the specific tools were now flipped for the style matchup, the principle was the same — dealing attritive damage to the durable challenger, ideally setting himself up to take later rounds decisively, and establishing a distance that would serve as a buffer from Romero’s sudden and dangerous offensives.

In a closed-stance matchup that Whittaker likely couldn’t have anticipated from a habitual southpaw, Whittaker’s primary tools from the outside were the low-line side kick and the front kick off his lead leg; both serve as effective barriers as Romero can’t close distance through them, and the body kick was spectacularly effective in their first fight. Along with the jab, those tools did a fantastic job in allowing the champion to manage the space in front of him — only exchanging in close-range on his own terms.

It’s quite rare to see an MMA fighter link their punches and kicks in smart ways, and Whittaker’s one of the better in the sport at it — seen earlier how he used his boxing to set up his head kick, but he also had moments of using the low-line kick as a way to close distance into the boxing. Romero’s measured response to the kicks (drawing his leg back) didn’t give Whittaker a huge edge, but it did make him even more difficult to counter on entry — later in the fourth, Whittaker would do something similar off the front kick to land a left hook.

Also interestingly, Whittaker had a very specific response to Romero looking to kick him back; Whittaker’s bladed stance often leaves checking difficult when the kick comes from the outside, but Romero’s linear or inside kicks were often met with Whittaker raising his leg and countering with a left hook as he ducked in.

In typical Romero fashion, though, Whittaker’s consistency became his own enemy — despite his orbital breaking to obstruct his eye after a catastrophic round 2, “The Soldier of God” was just getting started.

Round 3: The Turn

While Yoel Romero had always been known for strong third rounds — in a three-round fight, it almost seemed like he was taking as long as possible to get the information he needed, before pulling the trigger on unnervingly effective reads — the momentum of the first fight appeared to mean different things for the matchup with Whittaker. Even aside from the pace Romero decided to keep at UFC 213 that had him exhausted by the start of the third, Whittaker’s game didn’t seem to be one that allowed for moment-dependent fighting; giving Whittaker his larger strategic fight leaves his snowballing game an absolute handful to cut off at a tactical level, and Romero found that out in the first two rounds as well. UFC 225 spoke to Romero’s brilliance as a tactician in finding his moment in his eighth round against Whittaker, flipping the fight on its head directly after a round that seemed to spell complete disaster.

Earlier, Whittaker’s use of the front kick was discussed, not only in an offensive capacity but a defensive one; Romero’s fairly square stance and his intention to force a shorter distance meant that Whittaker had a large target for the strike and could consistently push off Romero to create space between them. In round 3, Romero upped his output from the beginning — again with the counter left hook each time Whittaker looked to kick — but also executed a unique read on the front kick; a deeper step forward from Romero left him a bit more bladed than usual, Whittaker’s target for the front kick was unexpectedly narrower and less stable, and Romero took advantage of Whittaker’s unpreparedness to exchange at that point (squared-up and expecting Romero to be far away) by herding him into a massive right hand.

The rest of the round was a mad dash, one of the better rounds that MMA has ever seen; Romero had taken a commanding early lead, enough for a potential 10-8 if Whittaker didn’t fire back effectively, and the Cuban was emptying the tank in response to his most meaningful moment of success against an opponent who’d flummoxed him for essentially every moment before that. Whittaker finding big moments afterwards certainly didn’t win him the round, but it likely kept him from losing a 10-8 right then, and forced Romero to moderate his energy a bit more carefully.

Romero crashing into the clinch wasn’t much of a good sign for the champion, as Romero alternated between looking for trips and creating space to punch. However, in one of the sharper improvisations from a hurt fighter in recent memory, Whittaker responded to the newfound swarming pressure of Romero with a flurry of elbows on the inside; creating frames and grabbing overhooks to stifle Romero’s output, Whittaker did a brilliant job converting those positions into offense before grabbing him again.

In space, Whittaker did the same thing for a bit as he composed himself; his ringcraft was certainly compromised by nearly getting flattened but his defense was still somewhat there, and he operated in transitions to keep Romero from comfortably flurrying to finish. Weaving into the left hook as a clinch entry (Formiga-like), or framing off his own jab to find yet another elbow, Whittaker focused on remaining safe as Romero smelled blood.

Near the end of the round, Whittaker finally found a shot that would’ve finished most normal men; using the lead uppercut to pop Romero’s head up, Whittaker used the feinted straight to obstruct Romero’s vision as he brought the rear kick up the side. It was a thunderous kick that landed clean, and Romero continuing to march Whittaker down afterwards made clear that a decision victory would be the best Whittaker could hope for.

Romero still could’ve gotten a 10-8 in this round, as he dealt a great deal of damage to Whittaker on the fence and the knockdown was absolutely massive; however, Whittaker’s composure and his craft took it into some grayer areas, making it conceivable that he was still in the lead as the fight went into the championship rounds. With a decided conditioning advantage over Romero, and with Romero seemingly having showed his ace in the hole in the process of burning himself out, the final two rounds should have been easier on Whittaker — but that isn’t the way Yoel Romero fights go.

Rounds 4 and 5: Survival

After perhaps the highest-volume round Romero has ever had, the subsequent frame wasn’t completely inert but it also wasn’t particularly specific from him; Yoel did have another trick up his sleeve, but a round in which he needed to get his breath back wasn’t the one to show it. Whittaker’s absurd survivability forced Romero to bide his time for another shot, and in the meantime, Whittaker could go back to doing his thing — maybe a bit more tentatively, with a hand injury to deal with, but the fourth round was largely commanded by the smart volume of the champion. That Romero put Whittaker on wobbly legs at the end of round 4 didn’t change the scoring, but did certainly make the point that Romero was perennially dangerous.

Whittaker’s game in round 4 was fairly similar to 1 and 2 — specifically, the front kick off the lead leg had some gorgeous intercepting connections. In this round, Whittaker started to look for the round kick to the head off his lead leg; outside of one time where he feinted out the left hook to kick him in the face, the purpose was largely to limit Romero’s counterpunching. Romero having such a hair-trigger on the left hook early in the third led to the knockdown; playing the linear kicks off the head kick would mean that Romero would be less willing to counter in combination (and therefore not blocking his head) each time he saw Whittaker’s lead leg doing something.

Whittaker’s lead hand was his only real hand left, and as such it took on increased prominence after the third. Whittaker would flurry with the jab to keep Romero shelled up as he remained in position to get behind his shoulders for Romero’s counters, and his rear hand took on a defensive role for most of the rest of the fight (catching Romero’s counter left hook, largely). Whittaker’s own counter selection didn’t need to change much, largely being off his lead hand as is, and he had some very nice moments of interrupting Romero’s entry with his jab or left hook.

Whittaker tried to replace his rear hand with elbows — recommended by his corner after Whittaker told them his hand was “busted”, Whittaker looked to get to an angle to disarm the counter once he got Romero shelling, then step in with the elbow. There were a few issues that weren’t present with the 3rd-round clinch elbows, however — Romero was still defaulting to a cross-guard that made most attacks to the head fairly tricky, and the shortened range of an elbow meant that Whittaker had to shift into range to come close. Whittaker’s newfound willingness (or need) to chase after a shelled-up Romero led him into a massive left hook counter as he squared up.

Whittaker took round 4 fairly clearly but not very comfortably; nevertheless, he now had three solid rounds in the books. Judges were not prone to giving 10-8s in rounds where the loser was still able to breathe on his own, so the odds were on Whittaker’s side — as impressive as Romero’s performance was from an improvement standpoint, his approach wasn’t one that was ever conducive to winning decisions. Essentially, all Whittaker had to do was survive and he’d have a good shot at winning the fight — and round 5 for Romero in their first fight was his worst round, largely due to energy expenditure that the near-finish still seemed to pull out of him. Naturally, Romero’s 5th round at UFC 225 was the most dominant of the fight as Romero collected on a whole-fight setup, one more than sufficient to introduce scoring controversy.

The question that hasn’t yet been addressed is why Romero ever went orthodox in the first place — and his gambit in the 5th round is where Chekhov’s Gun nearly blew Whittaker’s head off. Hopping to the outside angle with the leg kick, Romero fired a left hand that forced Whittaker to duck and angle out. With an orthodox Romero, that would’ve been the end of it as Whittaker would’ve been past his shoulder, and Romero would’ve had to turn to try again — however, with Romero in southpaw in that exchange, he shifted through the first left, and Whittaker’s exit left him not even facing Romero and walking into the left hook from orthodox. Some of the most clever shifting ever seen in a fight, and it defined the fifth round.

The rest of the fight was just Whittaker protecting his head, trying hard to survive, and getting off virtually no offense even when he recovered and got separation. It was a brutal ending to perhaps the most damaging series in MMA history to both sides, and Robert Whittaker came away with a decision that may not have been correct but was certainly well-earned.

Parting Thoughts

Whittaker/Romero 2 was a fight that had to happen from a divisional standpoint, but could have (in retrospect) been one of the most pointlessly destructive fights in MMA. It wasn’t technically for a belt — which didn’t matter at the time, Whittaker’s legitimacy as a champion hung in the balance as surely as the belt didn’t, but also didn’t help matters when Whittaker won an interim belt that got promoted to undisputed status. It didn’t net Romero the long-awaited #1 status he seemed destined for prior to Whittaker’s rise, and Whittaker’s grasp of the championship seemed to weaken even with an impressive win. Finally, both men took mileage like few other fights could match — Romero’s face was permanently changed by the orbital fracture early, and Whittaker surviving the first knockdown likely led to several years being taken off his career in the following fifteen minutes. With Romero never winning a fight in the UFC again (at least officially) and Whittaker taking a year off before getting knocked out in his subsequent fight, UFC 225 seemed like an event that might’ve been the beginning of the end of two careers at the elite level.

However, the overall series did show that Whittaker and Romero were among the best to ever fight in the sport. Three years later and with a top kickboxer ruling 185, both fights still remain as the pinnacle of what middleweight could be — while the division hasn’t ever been the deepest around, top fighters there have generally been top fighters overall, and there’s a strong case that no other division has matched the mindful adaptations and simultaneously mindless violence that the two Whittaker/Romero fights brought. Whittaker rebounded strongly from the loss, which is a feat on its own — former middleweight champions don’t tend to hang around the top for too long, but Whittaker has once again laid claim to being the best, proving to be an exception in every way. For his part, Romero cemented himself as one of the scariest men to ever fight — changing his entire game at 41 to give a younger champion hell. All of the many parentheticals aside, both established themselves to be something special.