Few may remember this but when Yoel Romero made his major mixed martial arts debut back in 2011, it was a dud. Fighting against former Strikeforce champion Rafael Cavalcante in that promotion, Romero did almost nothing in the first round—seriously, he threw only six strikes, according to FightMetric stats—and then he was knocked down twice in the second on the way to being stopped via knockout.
While he was only in his fifth pro fight at the time, Romero was already creeping up on his 35th birthday. At that moment, it seemed like he had left his best days in the wrestling room, and that the MMA learning curve would be too steep to navigate, and for that, he could hardly be blamed.