Yoel Romero beat Luke Rockhold by knockout in the third round. (Twitter/UFC)
Yoel Romero beat Luke Rockhold by knockout in the third round of their scheduled middleweight interim title bout Sunday, the main card highlight of UFC 221 at the Perth Arena. But Cuba’s Romero was ineligible to claim the interim title when he missed the weight at Friday’s weigh-ins. He was 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) over at his first attempt and still 1.7 pounds (0.77kg) over the 186 pound (84kg) limit at his second.
Rockhold would have taken the title with a win Sunday and seemed to have it in his grasp until Romero demonstrated all of his explosive punching power, opening his rival up with a left hook, then following up with an uppercut which sent Rockhold to the canvas. The title bout had been troublesome from the outset. Australian Robert Whittaker originally was to defend his maiden UFC title against Rockhold but was forced to withdraw with an illness.
Rising heavyweight Curtis Blaydes made good use of his wrestling skills to outpoint fifth-ranked Mark Hunt 30-26, 30-26, 29-27. But the 26-year-old American, who improved his record to 9-1, left the cage to boos from a crowd frustrated at his negative style. Hunt, who was fighting for the first time since beating Derrick Lewis in Auckland eight months ago, rocked the ninth-ranked Blaydes with some heavy punches early but Blaydes tired the New Zealander with a series of 10 takedowns for the biggest win of his career.
The loss is a major setback to Hunt in his farewell tour in the UFC. He has only two fights left on his contract and now seems unlikely to be awarded a late title shot at the end of a long and successful career. Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa unleashed a powerful barrage of punches to beat France’s Cyril Asker by TKO in the first round, improving his record to 9-0.
On a good night for Australians, Tyson Pedro beat Russia’s Saparbek Safarov by submission in the first round of their light-heavyweight bout which began the main card. Jake Matthews made it two for two for home fighters with a unanimous points win over China’s Li Jingliang in a welterweight bout.