Report: Romero targeting Miami for Whittaker rematch

Yoel Romero is reportedly aiming to even the score with Robert Whittaker in his adopted home.

The 40-year-old's team has approached the UFC about booking him to challenge the middleweight champion in Miami later this year, MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani reports. The promotion appears to be receptive to the idea, although the logistics for the matchup are nowhere close to being finalized.

UFC 42, the outfit's sole visit to the Florida city, drew just 6,700 to American Airlines Arena in 2003 and a buyrate well below 100,000 pay-per-views. Then-welterweight champion Matt Hughes defended the crown with a unanimous decision over Sean Sherk in the main event.

Romero - a Cuban native who lives and trains in South Florida - missed weight for what was meant to be an interim title bout opposite Luke Rockhold at UFC 221, but still cemented himself as Whittaker's challenger in waiting with a third-round KO. He suspected he'd broken his leg in the first round of last week's matchup, but left Australia with only a deep shin bruise and is already off crutches, Helwani reports.

Romero first met Whittaker for an interim title in July at UFC 213, where he got the short end of a unanimous decision. The Aussie was later promoted to undisputed champion when Georges St-Pierre vacated the throne due to a bout with ulcerative colitis in late 2017, then pulled out of a date with Rockhold at UFC 221 with a variety of afflictions, but aims to defend the strap this summer.