Whittaker Feels Romero Was Discouraged When He Couldn’t Finish Costa

Robert Whittaker believes Yoel Romero was taken aback when Paulo Costa absorbed his shots.

On the main card of UFC 241, Romero went one-on-one with Costa. The bout was back-and-forth and neither man was interested in giving in to the power shots. In the end, Costa earned the unanimous decision victory. It was another close decision loss for “The Solider of God,” who has now dropped three of his last four bouts.

Whittaker spoke to the folks at Grange TV and gave his assessment of Romero’s performance.

“He looked like a fighter that doesn’t listen to anyone but himself,” Whittaker said. “He just did whatever he wanted to do. He just did whatever he felt he wanted to do. He didn’t follow the game plan that was made for him.

“Any other coach would have been like ‘keep his back to the fence. He’s gassed, he’s got nowhere to go.’ You know what I mean? I’m sure he just didn’t follow advice and just did his own thing because his coaches have said that before.”

Whittaker went on to say he thinks Romero didn’t know what to do when Costa was able to weather the storm.

“I think Romero got [disheartened],” Whittaker added. “When he landed those bombs on Costa and Costa didn’t go anywhere, he was like ‘oh no.’”

Whittaker is scheduled to take on Israel Adesanya in a middleweight title unification bout on Oct. 5. “The Reaper” holds the 185-pound gold, while “The Last Stylebender” is the interim title holder. Something’s got to give in the main event of UFC 243.