Coach says Hall is still in ‘phenomenal shape,’ calls out Romero

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

Coach Sayif Saud has big plans for Uriah Hall’s next career move after UFC 249.

Over the past couple of months, middleweight contender Uriah Hall dedicated himself to his supposed fight against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza at UFC 249. After the cancellation of the original event on April 18, the TUF 17 alum decided to move into Fortis MMA and continue training until he gets a new fight date.

Hall vs. Souza was eventually rescheduled for May 9th, but the fight ended up being cancelled after the Brazilian tested positive for COVID-19 on weigh-in day. Now that he’s going back to the drawing board, “Prime Time” is ready to move on.

“I’m not going to get too much into the drama and the timeline. We found out when everyone else found out. It’s unfortunate for everybody. We knew the fight was off and Uriah moved on,” Hall’s coach Sayif Saud told BJPENN.com. “The big question is where do we go from here? Uriah is so ready to fight, he’s in phenomenal shape. I haven’t seen him be tired in weeks.

“I want to get him in there soon because he’s really to make a run. We are ready for the next challenge.”

In terms of the next challenge, Saud is looking at someone who’s fought for the belt multiple times, with the aim of putting Hall into title contention.

“I want to see Uriah get a highly-ranked opponent like Yoel Romero,” Saud said. “The champ just fought him and let’s see how Uriah does against him. That would be great for him if he could have a good performance against Yoel.

“I want to see him get closer to a title shot because Uriah vs. Israel would be such a great fight. There styles just mesh. Who wouldn’t want to see Uriah vs. Israel? That would be awesome.”

The number ten-ranked Hall (15-9) is on a two-fight win streak. He last fought in September and won via split decision against Antonio Carlos Junior.