Romero fails to make weight in UFC farce

Sunday's UFC main bout fight in Perth will go ahead despite Cuban Yoel Romero failing to make weight.

Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold

Yoel Romero (left) failed to make weight for his UFC fight against Luke Rockhold in Perth. (AAP)

Sunday's main event UFC clash in Perth has turned into a farce with Cuban Yoel Romero twice failing to make weight.

The fight between he and American Luke Rockhold was meant to be a battle for the interim middleweight belt but Romero has now been ruled ineligible for that title.

He initially weighed in at 188.3 pounds but was given two more hours to meet the 185-pound limit.

The 40-year-old vowed to hit the sauna in a bid to lose the excess weight but when he returned, weighed in at 187.7.

Rockhold weighed in at 184.9 pounds.

Despite Saturday's drama, the fight will go ahead, with Romero now forced to give a percentage of his pay purse to Rockhold.

Romero was visibly disappointed after failing to make weight the second time.

It was a far different story on Friday, when he danced salsa in public as part of a promotion for the fight.

"Should have be doing the salsa in the sauna. Some bull***t as usual," Rockhold said on Twitter.

Rockhold was initially set to take on Australian champion Robert Whittaker for the middleweight belt.

But when Whittaker was ruled out through illness on January 13, Romero was named his replacement with the fight downgraded to interim belt status.

If Rockhold wins on Sunday, he will take on Whittaker in a middleweight world title bout later this year.

Whittaker, who became Australia's first UFC champion in December when Canadian Georges St-Pierre vacated the belt, had to be convinced by family to pull out of his world title defence.

The Australian's troubles began when he was forced to take antibiotics after contracting an abscess infection on his buttocks.

The antibiotics left him bedridden for several weeks and his health deteriorated further after contracting chickenpox.

Whittaker said it was the sickest he had ever felt.


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Source: AAP



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