Yoel Romero out; Jack Hermansson slated for Jacare Souza bout
With news that Yoel Romero has been ruled out of a rematch with Jacare Souza through illness, Jack Hermansson is verbally agreed to take his place.
As first reported by Brazilian outlet AGFight, Romero was pulled from his UFC on ESPN 3 main event bout with Jacare earlier this week after a persistent high fever. With the current #1 ranked contender unable to compete, the UFC has since moved to Jack Hermansson as a replacement for the April 27th bout with the bout now verbally agreed.
In addition to Jacare receiving a replacement opponent, ESPN’s Brett Okamoto also reports that the Brazilian will be granted a middleweight title shot pending his victory.
Hermansson (19-4) will enter his first main event bout coming off of the best win of his career. ‘The Joker’ made quick work of David Branch last weekend as he submitted Branch inside 50 seconds to record his third-straight stoppage victory.
Jacare (26-6, 1 NC) meanwhile has long been a mainstay at the top end of the middleweight division but has gone 2-2 in his last four outings. After losing to current 185 lbs champion Robert Whittaker via TKO, Souza traded a win and loss with Derek Brunson and Kelvin Gastelum respectively before most recently scoring a KO win over Chris Weidman at UFC 230.
UFC on ESPN 3 is now scheduled to feature:
- Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza vs. Jack Hermansson
- Glover Teixeira vs. Ion Cutelaba
- Greg Hardy vs. Dmitrii Smoliakov
- John Lineker vs. Cory Sandhagen
- Carla Esparza vs. Virna Jandiroba
- Alex Oliveira vs. Mike Perry
- Gilbert Burns vs. Eric Wisely
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Augusto Sakai
- Jessica Penne vs. Jodie Esquibel
- Court McGee vs. Dhiego Lima
- Ben Saunders vs. Takashi Sato