UFC 248: Adesanya vs. Romero Preview

UFC 248 will be taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on March 7. The main event will be headlined by a middleweight bout between champion Israel Adesanya and the contender Yoel Romero.

Main Event Breakdown

The 30-year-old “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya is the current middleweight champion and has an undefeated record (18-0-0). Fourteen of his 18 wins have come by knockout.

He has a striking accuracy of 54 percent but lacks even a single successful grappling attempt. He has been dominant in throwing punches and knocking opponents out.

Even though he has not had much of a ground game, he has been successful thus far. He lands about four signature strikes a minute and absorbs a little over two a minute. So he really lands twice as many signature strikes compared to his opponents.

Adesanya has a takedown defense of 85 percent, so he does a good job defending himself here. He stands at 75 inches and also has a reach of 80 inches, which is very good for his size.

“Soldier of God” Romero is 42 and currently ranked third in the middleweight division (13-4-0). Eleven of his 13 wins have been by knockout. He has a striking accuracy of 51 percent and a grappling accuracy of 36 percent.

Romero lands about 3.32 signature strikes a minute while absorbing 2.95 a minute. He seems to be a defensive fighter that looks for the perfect opportunity to land a major hit for the knockout win. He has successfully done this almost all throughout his career.

He also has a takedown defense of 78 percent, so his opponents do not take him down too often, but every now and then, they get the best of him. He stands at 72 inches and has a reach of 73.5 inches, so he may have a harder time fighting from a distance, especially with taller fighters.

Final Thoughts

Both fighters have made this fight very interesting. You have an aggressor in Adesanya who knows how to throw some punches. Then you have Romero, who is good at retaliation and also has some knockout punches to throw at you.

Adesanya also has a pretty good reach advantage over Romero. This matchup should play out to be a good fight. On both sides of the octagon are very strong fighters that could knock you out in the blink of an eye.