UFC 225: Whittaker survives split decision with Romero
Australia’s UFC Middleweight world champion Robert Whittaker has earned a six-figure bonus, but copped yet another bad health break after a thrilling win over Cuban Yoel Romero in Chicago.
In front of a sellout crowd of 18,117 at the United Center, Whittaker survived a furious final round onslaught from Romero to earn a split decision in their rematch. Two judges scored the fight 48-47 to the Sydneysider and their colleague gave it to Romero by the same score.
Whittaker clearly won the first two rounds and shaded the fourth, but was floored and clearly hurt in both the third and fifth.
Whittaker’s title was not on the line, because Romero failed to make the weight but his rotten run with injuries continued. He has had multiple issues since suffering a knee problem in his points win over Romero in their first fight 11 months ago and hurt his hand in Chicago.
“In the first round, I busted my hand and I cannot feel it up to my elbow,” Whittaker said.
“Yoel hits like a truck and I just had to try and survive and make the comeback. I could have seen it going any way because it was tight, but I hit him a lot and I thought I did enough to get three of the five rounds. It was a really tough fight but I want to go back and talk to my team and see what we think should be next.”
UFC boss Dana White said he would see how long it took Whittaker to get healthy before any decision was made on the champion’s next fight.
“I saw him back there and his hand was swollen up, it’s huge his hand is definitely broken,” White said.
Whittaker went to hospital after the fight, but at least had the consolation of a $100,000 bonus for winning the fight of the night award.
Whittaker was the early aggressor, while Romero struggled to find his range. Renowned for producing explosive moments, Romero floored Whittaker in the third with a massive right-hand shot and landed several other strikes, but Whittaker survived.
Whittaker reasserted himself in the fourth, but the Australian got caught a couple of times late in the round. He got floored again in the fifth and absorbed plenty of punishment.
Earlier, Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa took a leaf from the Daniel Ricciardo’s celebration playbook after claiming the biggest scalp of his burgeoning career at UFC 225 in Chicago.
Tuivasa was taken the distance for the first time but toughed out a unanimous points win over former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night, extending his MMA record to 10-0 and his UFC log to 3-0.
The big Sydneysider celebrated with a Ricciardo-style “shoey”, drawing a mixed reaction of amusement, cheers and disgust as he borrowed a shoe and drank beer from it on his victory walk out of the octagon.
He had never been taken beyond the first round before and didn’t have things all his own way despite landing several strong right-hand blows and a few more total strikes than Arlovski.
Tuivasa was marked on his face in the first round and blood streamed from his nose in the third as Arlovski also landed some good strikes.
All three judges scored the fight 29-28 to the Australian.
“I’m pretty happy with that performance,” Tuivasa said. “Obviously I was coming out for the knockout but sometimes it doesn’t happen, especially against a tough opponent like that.”
Tuivasa’s countrywoman Megan Anderson did not fare so well, suffering a loss in her UFC debut against former bantamweight world champion Holly Holm. The more experienced Holm dictated terms for most of the bout against the taller and bigger-bodied Anderson.
Each woman landed a strong kick to the head in the first round, which featured a lot of close quarter work from both fighters.
Holm dominated the second round, landing numerous strikes after taking Anderson to the ground. Anderson snapped Holm’s head back and sent her backwards with a strong straight right in the opening seconds of the third, but wasn’t able to capitalise.
Holm quickly regained control, again taking Anderson to the ground and pounding her with numerous blows. Two judges gave Holm the fight 30-26 and their colleague scored it 30-27.