With ATT, UFC Fight Night 31's Yoel Romero adding to Olympic wrestling skills

It takes some MMA fighters a while to find the weight that suits them best, and UFC Fight Night 31's Yoel Romero has finally figured out where he should have been all along.

After competing in his first five professional bouts as a light heavyweight, Romero (5-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) dropped down to 185 pounds for his UFC debut in April, and it’s hard to argue with the results. Announcing his arrival in the middleweight division, Romero stormed the octagon and crushed Clifford Starks with a fight-ending flying knee just 92 seconds into the contest.

“I feel excellent [at middleweight],” Romero told MMAjunkie.com Radio. “I’m naturally a middleweight, so this is where I feel I always should have been.”

A silver medalist in wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Romero knows what it takes to fluctuate in weight and still compete at the highest level. While he was still able to hang with top-tier competition at 205 pounds, he feels middleweight is his optimal weight class for performance.

He’ll look to prove it when he meets Ronny Markes (14-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) in a featured bout at “UFC Fight Night 31: Fight for the Troops 3.” The event takes place Wednesday night on FOX Sports 1, with preliminary card action streaming on MMAjunkie.com. Romero and Markes compete just prior to the night’s co-headliner.

Markes has had a nice run in the UFC thus far, winning his first three fights by decision. Unfortunately for him, Romero is training with some of the top athletes in the world at Florida’s American Top Team, and the fighter feels ready for anything his Brazilian foe can throw his way.

“It’s an honor to train at ATT,” Romero said. “I love every minute of it, and I love absorbing different fight styles and different aspects of fighting I didn’t know before.”

Even though Romero possesses one of the most decorated wrestling pedigrees in MMA, training at ATT has evolved his striking to a level that’s nearly as lethal as his takedown game, he said. The 36-year-old holds knockout power in all of his limbs, and though a KO won’t be his top priority, he said will be more than happy to take the opportunity if it presents itself.

“I don’t always look for the knockout,” Romero said. “But if the knockout just happens to come around, that’s what happens.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 31, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.