| UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Romero | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Romero | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) | |||
| Venue | Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino | |||
| City | Hollywood, Florida | |||
| Attendance | 5,604[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Romero (also known asUFC Fight Night 70) was amixed martial arts event held on June 27, 2015, at theSeminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino inHollywood, Florida.[2]
The event was originally expected to be held at theGinásio do Ibirapuera inSão Paulo,Brazil.[3] However, on May 15, the event was moved to theSeminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino inHollywood, Florida.[2]
The fight card was also expected to feature the lightweight and bantamweight finals ofThe Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4.[4] This was the first time an Ultimate Fighter Brazil Finale event would be held outside of Brazil. However, as the event approached, several international fighters experienced travel restrictions due to technical issues within theBureau of Consular Affairs division of theU.S. State Department which producestravel visas. The issue led to a major altering of the card as multiple fights were postponed.[5][6]
The lightweight and bantamweight finals ofThe Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4, was instead contested on August 1, 2015 atUFC 190.[6][7]
A welterweight bout betweenRick Story andErick Silva was expected to serve as the main event.[8] However, after the initial venue change, the bout was moved to a co-featured slot and the event was headlined by a middleweight bout between formerUFC Light Heavyweight championLyoto Machida and2000 Summer Olympics silver medalist infreestyle wrestlingYoel Romero.[2] Also affected by the visa issues, Silva was pulled from the event and his bout against Story was rescheduled forUFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Oliveira.[6][7][9]
A light heavyweight bout betweenNikita Krylov andMarcos Rogério de Lima was briefly linked toUFC Fight Night 69. However, the pairing was expected to take place at this event.[10] Subsequently, the pairing was postponed again as de Lima faced visa issues.[7]
A featherweight bout betweenRani Yahya andMasanori Kanehara also planned for the event was shifted to theUFC Fight Night 71 event on July 15, 2015.[6][11]
Chas Skelly was briefly linked to a bout withHacran Dias at the event. However, Skelly was pulled from the card due to illness and was replaced byLevan Makashvili.[12]
A welterweight bout betweenViscardi Andrade and Andreas Ståhl was scrapped as Ståhl suffered an injury in the week leading up to the event.[11]
Promotional newcomer Lewis Gonzalez missed weight on his first attempt at the weigh-ins, coming in 3 lb overweight at 174 lb. After having made no attempts to cut further, he was fined 20 percent of his fight purse, which went toLeandro Silva.[13]
In a controversial post-fight interview, Yoel Romero seemed to express disagreement with theObergefell v. Hodges supreme court ruling. However, during the post fight press conference and subsequent interviews the following day, Romero denied referring to gay marriage and apologized for his comments while maintaining that they were misunderstood and taken out of context.[14]
| Main Card (Fox Sports 1) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Middleweight | Yoel Romero | def. | Lyoto Machida | KO (elbows) | 3 | 1:38 | |
| Welterweight | Lorenz Larkin | def. | Santiago Ponzinibbio | TKO (punches) | 2 | 3:07 | |
| Middleweight | Antônio Carlos Júnior | def. | Eddie Gordon | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 3 | 4:37 | |
| Middleweight | Thiago Santos | def. | Steve Bossé | KO (head kick) | 1 | 0:29 | |
| Featherweight | Hacran Dias | def. | Levan Makashvili | Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1) | |||||||
| Welterweight | Alex Oliveira | def. | Joe Merritt | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Catchweight (174 lb) | Leandro Silva | def. | Lewis Gonzalez | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 29–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Welterweight | Tony Sims | def. | Steve Montgomery | TKO (punches) | 1 | 2:43 | |
| Bantamweight | Sirwan Kakai | def. | Danny Martinez | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
The following fighters were awarded $50,000 bonuses:[16]
The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Florida State Boxing Commission. It does not include sponsor money or "locker room" bonuses often given by the UFC and also do not include the UFC's traditional "fight night" bonuses.[17]
^Gonzalez was fined $2,000, 20 percent of his purse for failing to make the required weight for his fight with Leandro Silva. That money was issued to Silva, officials confirmed.[17]
