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History · 2018 · UFC 225: Whittaker vs. Romero 2 · Robert Whittaker vs Yoel Romero
From the tape · 9 Jun 2018

Robert Whittaker vs Yoel Romero

UFC 225: Whittaker vs. Romero 2 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Result

Robert Whittaker beat Yoel Romero

Method
Decision - Split
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
MiddleweightMainReferee · Dan Miragliotta

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner RobertWhittaker“The Reaper”PMA Super Martial Arts · Sydney, New South Wales
VSOn the tape
YR
Blue corner YoelRomero“Soldier of God”American Top Team · Miami, Florida
Middleweight5 rounds9 Jun 2018
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 8-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 7 of 9 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 5 of 10 UFC wins.
28-9
Record
13-5
−14 yr27
Age
41
6' 0"
Height
6' 0"
73″
Reach
73″
Orthodox
Stance
Southpaw
+212
UFC bouts
10
5/1050% of wins
Finishes
+28%7/978% of wins
PMA Super Martial Arts
Gym
American Top Team
Sydney, New South Wales
From
Miami, Florida
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Robert Whittaker33 sig landed
HEAD36%12 of 58BODY6%2 of 4LEGS58%19 of 23
Yoel Romero9 sig landed
HEAD33%3 of 15BODY22%2 of 4LEGS44%4 of 5
33 of 85
Sig.
strikes
9 of 24
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 33Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 9Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Whittaker firstSal D'Amato10–9Chris Lee10–9Brian Puccillo10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Robert Whittaker29 sig landed
HEAD48%14 of 57BODY21%6 of 8LEGS31%9 of 12
Yoel Romero20 sig landed
HEAD40%8 of 33BODY20%4 of 5LEGS40%8 of 10
29 of 77
Sig.
strikes
20 of 48
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 28Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 19Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Whittaker firstSal D'Amato10–9Chris Lee10–9Brian Puccillo10–9
Round 35:00 of action⚡ 1 KD Romero
Robert Whittaker18 sig landed
HEAD56%10 of 28BODY28%5 of 9LEGS17%3 of 5
Yoel Romero36 sig landed
HEAD92%33 of 73BODY8%3 of 4LEGS0%0 landed
18 of 42
Sig.
strikes
36 of 77
0 of 0
Take-
downs
2 of 6
0:37
Control
2:11
0
Knock-
downs
1
Distance 10Clinch 8Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 8Clinch 22Ground 6
Judges · this round · Whittaker firstSal D'Amato9–10Chris Lee9–10Brian Puccillo9–10
Round 45:00 of action
Robert Whittaker34 sig landed
HEAD47%16 of 65BODY21%7 of 14LEGS32%11 of 14
Yoel Romero20 sig landed
HEAD70%14 of 37BODY20%4 of 5LEGS10%2 of 2
34 of 93
Sig.
strikes
20 of 44
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 34Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 20Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Whittaker firstSal D'Amato9–10Chris Lee10–9Brian Puccillo10–9
Round 55:00 of action⚡ 1 KD RomeroEnded 5:00
Robert Whittaker14 sig landed
HEAD36%5 of 17BODY21%3 of 4LEGS43%6 of 8
Yoel Romero26 sig landed
HEAD69%18 of 36BODY23%6 of 9LEGS8%2 of 2
14 of 29
Sig.
strikes
26 of 47
0 of 1
Take-
downs
1 of 3
0:00
Control
2:10
0
Knock-
downs
1
Distance 14Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 10Clinch 2Ground 14
Judges · this round · Whittaker firstSal D'Amato9–10Chris Lee9–10Brian Puccillo9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Split Decision

Referee · Dan Miragliotta
Robert WhittakerYoel Romero
Official totals — Robert Whittaker first
JudgeTotal
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide47–48
Chris Lee2.0 avg spread · 44% wide48–47
Brian Puccillo1.8 avg spread · 36% wide48–47

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 28 scored, Robert Whittaker first · unofficial

MM ABrasil.com.br48–47
MM AMania.com48–47
Steven Rondina BleacherReport.com48–47
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com48–47
Sean Ross Sapp Fightful.com48–47
Nick Baldwin BloodyElbow.com47–47
Mike Straus MMAJA47–47
Alexander K. Lee MMAFighting.com47–47
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com47–47
Matthew Wells FanSided.com47–47
Steve Duncan mma.uno47–47
Wesley Riddle MMASucka.com47–47
Drake Riggs BJPenn.com47–47
Phil Murphy ESPN47–48
Nolan King MMA- Today.com47–48
John Pollock POST Wrestling47–48
Stephie Haynes BloodyElbow.com47–48
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com47–48
Kendrick Johnson The Ring47–48
Jim Edwards MMALatestNews.com47–48
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com47–48
Youngs FanSided.com47–48
Danny Segura MMAFighting.com47–48
Ben Duffy Sherdog.com46–48
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com46–48
Anton Tabuena BloodyElbow.com46–48
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com46–48
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com46–48

Fan vote · unofficial

48-47 Whittaker · 29%48-47 Romero · 14%48-46 Romero · 9%47-46 Romero · 7%

2,201 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Robert Whittaker

0.73takedowns / 15 min
0.73 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.57 / 15m
1.92 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
5.23 / 15m
38%
ACCURACY
30%
0.00 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.00 / 15m

Yoel Romero

1.57takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Middleweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Robert Whittaker↑ +15.7pp
open 55.8%close 71.5%
Yoel Romero↓ −15.7pp
open 44.2%close 28.5%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Robert Whittaker opened at 55.8% and closed at 71.5% (+15.7pp), with Yoel Romero moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Robert Whittaker-150-28055.8%71.5%+15.7pp
Yoel Romero11024044.2%28.5%−15.7pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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