Yoel Romeo admits he made a mistake in not finishing off Robert Whittaker in their first fight and has declared he won't be so merciful in their UFC middleweight world title bout in Chicago this weekend.
Cuban Romero dominated the first two rounds of their first clash for an interim title in Las Vegas last July, but Whittaker stormed back to win the last three and earn a points decision, despite suffering an injury early in the bout.
Romero didn't do any physical work at Thursday afternoon's (AEST) media workout at the Chicago Theatre, saying he couldn't see well because his eyes were dilated.
Conversely, Whittaker worked up a good sweat with a sharp and lively routine in front of a large and appreciative audience.
They fight for Whittaker's title at Chicago's United Centre on Sunday afternoon (AEST) and Romero has no intention of letting the Sydneysider wriggle off the hook if he has him in trouble.
"I made a mistake," Romero said.
"I had a moment in the fight when I could have finished him and I didn't do it and now I want to finish him."
While Whittaker admitted he was initially hampered by the leg injury he said he never thought for a moment he would lose the fight.
"If you think you can lose you're already putting a foot out the door in my opinion," Whittaker said.
"One thing that did go through my head in rounds one and two was 'how am I going to win?'
"I bust my leg and it hurt and I had to think about how I was going to win and I worked it out."
Whittaker stressed he would not deliver on an earlier statement that he wouldn't fight this weekend if Romero missed the weight, which the Cuban did in his last fight against Luke Rockhold in Perth back in February.
"It''s a long flight to Chicago, if I travelled 22 hours I'm fighting someone mate," Whittaker joked.
One of the veterans of the sport at 41, Romero said he wasn't thinking about retirement.
"I'm going to go in there giving him the respect of the threat that he is and I'm going to do everything in my power to put him away," Whittaker said.
Whittaker and fellow Australians Tai Tuivasa and Megan Anderson will all be part of the main card shown live on Main Event.
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