Romero says his fight with Costa is off: 'He failed a USADA test, I'll be fighting Souza

Well, he thinks that's the case, anyway.

Last week, a previously agreed-upon UFC on ESPN 3 headliner between Paulo Costa and Yoel Romero gave way to a rematchbetween Romero and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

ESPN.com was first to announce the news with a confirmation from UFC President Dana White, but no reason was given for the switch. Today, Romero said on the 
rel="nofollow">“Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” that he’d heard the reason was that Costa potentially had failed a test administered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

“What I hear is Paulo Costa, he had a positive test for USADA,” Romero said. “That’s what happened. That’s what I heard. The UFC called my manager and said Paulo Costa is out because he is positive and they said, ”Jacare’ Souza’ (as an opponent)?’ I said OK.”

Romero (13-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) said he didn’t know what the positive test was for, only that his manager had informed him that Costa (12-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) was out and that he’d have to take another opponent.

Afterward, Romero reached out to Ariel Helwani to clarify his comments, though, and said it was what he had heard and that he didn’t want to accuse someone hastily. (via Twitter)

Re: the Paulo Costa story, Yoel Romero called me immediately after the show to clarify that he had only heard that Paulo Costa failed a USADA drug test but he is not sure if that is accurate at this time. He said he would never want to accuse anyone before the facts come out.

https://mmajunkie.com/2019/03/yoel-romero-heard-usada-violation-paulo-costa-ufc-on-espn-sunrise-florida-rumor

Costa's manager has responded, and sys it's ********. The positive test that is, the fight appears to be off, still.