Yoel Romero is one of more unique characters in the UFC. For evidence, look no further than his interview with MMAjunkie ahead of UFC 221.

Romero (12-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) fights Luke Rockhold (16-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) for the interim UFC middleweight title in Saturday’s UFC 221 headliner, which takes place at Perth Arena in Perth, Western Australia, Australia, and airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

“The Soldier of God” is coming off an interim title-fight loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 213 in July, but he gets another chance to claim a partial stake at UFC gold when he clashes with Rockhold in a bout with some decent heat behind it.

Ahead of fight night, Romero talked to MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco and discussed UFC 221 from all angles. It was an interesting chat.

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Is it weird for you to be fighting for another interim title?

No.

Why is that? It’s unusual from an outsider’s perspective.

Because I’m No. 1 in the world. I’ve been No. 1 for a while. This was bound to happen. I thought at first that I was going to get a fight with Robert Whittaker, but he had a fight with Rockhold, and he was injured. It was always on my mind fighting either Robert Whittaker or fighting someone that was ranked behind him at No. 2.

Originally, I thought Robert was going to fight Georges St-Pierre, and then I was going to fight Rockhold, and whoever won would fight for the title. “GSP” vacated the title, so I thought I was going to be the one to fight Whittaker for revenge. But the fight ended up going to No. 2, and God is always good. When you look at it from a point of view, business-wise, the champion needs a fight, so they were going to give him either revenge against No. 1, or give him No. 2.

God always listens, and I always say this on other occasions as well, and I don’t know what happened with Whittaker, but I wish him the best. I hope that he gets better soon. And God ended up making this happen. The champion heals up, and No. 1 and No. 2 and go to war.

Were you signed to fight David Branch when you got this fight offer?

Yes. Do you think that if I fight Luke Rockhold and I knock him out quick, I’ll be able to fight David Branch?

I guess what I was getting at was, when you have that fight booked, how did you imagine the next year of your career playing out?

Like a champ for the UFC. I envision myself being a champ.

Did you imagine you fight the winner of St-Pierre vs. Whittaker? Did you imagine you’d fight Michael Bisping? How did you imagine you career going?

I’m champion. I want to be champion of the UFC. That’s it. It doesn’t matter who. When they have the belt, I fight with the guy and take the belt. That’s it.

What about fighting Luke Rockhold excites you as a competitor?

He seems to me like a bully. This isn’t cool, you know? He is like a bully. After the fight, I want to say something. After the fight – after the fight. He knows.

You want to say something to Luke, or about something else?

I want to say something at him, and I want to say something about him.

Why wait until after the fight?

Because I need to focus on cutting weight. It’s too much of a load. Now, it’s step by step. The plan is to cut the weight. Now, it’s talk with you. Later, it’s another interview. Step by step – 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11 – no, that doesn’t mean anything because you didn’t go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Can I ask you why he’s a bully, though?

Because I know. I never in my life have bullied somebody – never in my life. But I see when people are bullies. When the people bully me, I can see, and that is him. He talks like a bully. He walks like a bully. He stinks like a bully. You need respect. Everybody needs respect, because everybody is human.

And you don’t think he respects you?

If you don’t like somebody, OK, you don’t like them. But you don’t (say), it’s bad. Like ice cream – why you need to talk bad about ice cream? You know? You like pizza? Why you talk about pizza? Look at it. If you remember the last time, a long time before, I had an interview after the fight. I beat somebody. I spoke into the microphone, and I said, ‘Don’t forget Jesus.’ I said, ‘Don’t forget.’ And the people thought I said, ‘Not for gay Jesus.’ It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or not gay. That’s not my problem. It’s not my life. You understand? My family is my focus. That was the first time where I spoke English, and my English is very bad. But exactly what happened is I said, ‘Don’t forget.’ The people shouldn’t forget God, because now when you see the world, the people are so crazy.

The people need to know the true way, and the true way is love. That’s exactly what God wants for the people. Love, passion. Passion for the love. Passion for the sport. Passion for everyone and for everything. The most important thing in life is love. If you don’t have love for anything, you live like a dead person, and that’s no good. And the bully is like that. The bully doesn’t have any love. The bully doesn’t have any love and no respect for anybody.

I’m sorry if I don’t understand this, and hopefully you can help me understand. Do you mean that Luke had something to do with the reaction, like he reacted in some way where everyone thought you said, gay Jesus? Is he related to that in some way?

No! No! No!

I’m confused.

I explain before the fight. After the fight, you can understand everything.

Um, OK. Well, after the fight, if you win, you’ll be interim champion. When do you think you’ll be able to fight for the real title? Have you been given any word from the UFC?

No! My brother, listen. Listen. I told you 20 seconds before. No. 1 is No. 1 is No. 1. No. 2 is No. 2. I don’t know when. Now is the time I’m speaking to you. Maybe after you, I’ll have another interview. Depending on what people ask me, I can respond. I can’t respond to you about the future. When the UFC talks to me and you ask me this question, I can respond to you. You understand, my man?

OK, another question not related to this fight. You’re good friend Michael Bisping recently said he might like to fight Lyoto Machida in March. He’s talked about that his retirement fight. Given what we see right now, it looks like he’s going to take that fight. Do you think you’ll ever get to fight him?

It’s not my problem. I don’t care.

You don’t care?

No! Why?

I thought that was a match that was important to you.

I don’t know if he wants to retire. He’s so tired. He looks tired. Maybe he has a problem in the head. Maybe he needs to rest. Maybe he’s tired. He looks so tired. Ah, my goodness.

Will you be OK with that, not fighting him again?

Yeah, for sure. It’s not my problem. I don’t care. I told you, I think only about love. Only love. I fight for love. That’s what I do. That’s my way. How do you feel today?

How do I feel today?

Yeah, how do you feel today?

I’ll be honest with you, I have an injured back, so I’m a little in pain. But other than that, I’m fine.

Uh huh.

Let me ask you this: Where do you think Luke Rockhold is beatable. Where do you think he’s weakest in his game, and how do you think you can take advantage of that?

No, you can see something. You need to pay for this. You pay for this, and you see what it is.

I think I was just asking because he said he wants to expose all the holes in your game, and I wanted to ask where you see the holes in his game.

God bless! Thank you, God. God bless. God bless him.

(Note: Parts of this interview were edited for increased clarity and concision. No, seriously.)

For more on UFC 221, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.