Rolando “Rolly” Romero fought No. 1 WBA contender Ismael Barroso at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas headlining a Premier Boxing Champions event. The vacant WBA super lightweight title was on-the-line.
That this fight was for a ‘World’ title would be laughable, but it is a sad reality in modern boxing. Rolando, 27, of Las Vegas, was having his first fight in the weight division, though was meant to challenge the stripped champion Alberto Puello. His last fight was a KO loss, to the excellent Gervonta Davis. How can you lose a fight by KO, move up a weight and walk straight into a World title shot? Only in Boxing!
Ismael, 40, of El Tigrito, Venezuela, was on a four-fight winning streak but his best years are well behind him. He remains dangerous, due to his power, but his punching volume has dropped significantly.
The first two rounds were sparse in action, both fighters overly cautious to commit. Though Ismael tried to press later in the second. The veteran scored a knockdown, with the left hand by the ropes, in the latter stages of the third. Romero recovered well.
The fourth was a little scrappy, heads came together, and Romero scored a low blow, but more action. The fifth was Barroso’s on pressure, while the sixth saw some counter hooks from Romero. Even with a knockdown, the first half of the fight was a very tentative affair.
After six completed rounds, Showtime’s unofficial scorecard, provided by Steve Farhood was 58-55 for the underdog and no arguments from here.
The seventh stanza and the favourite still not throwing enough and giving away another round due to the pressure brought by Barroso. In the eighth, Romero still backing off and not throwing much, while Barroso is landing straight lefts to the body.
The fateful ninth: Ismael landed a couple of hard hooks, but Romero started firing and floored the Venezuelan with a right-hand push, which the referee, incorrectly, ruled a knockdown. The action had undoubtedly heated up and both men landed decent blows, but the ending was simply unacceptable. With 40 seconds left, Rolando was putting on the pressure and digging to the body, but Ismael is still firing. The Venezuelan is in a neutral corner but fires off two right hands, Romero misses his shots, one grazed past, and then the incompetent referee, Tony Weeks, waves the fight off with 21 seconds remaining. Why? There was no reason to stop this fight.
At the time of the stoppage, Romero was down on all three scorecards: 78-73, 77-74, 76-75. Barroso landed more punches in the fight and was the one who scored a legitimate knockdown. The referees’ actions were bizarre.
Ismael (24-4-2, 22 KOs) on the ending: “I think it was an injustice to stop the fight,” said Barroso, a late replacement for Alberto Puello, who previously held the WBA 140-pound title, had been stripped of his title because of a failed VADA test. “I was landing the better shots. It was a push on the first knockdown. It wasn’t a big blow or anything. The referee just stopped the fight, and he didn’t say anything. You can see it clearly. I’m the one who’s hitting him. There was nothing clear that he hit me with. I don’t understand why they stopped the fight.”
To his credit, Romero admitted that the contest should not have been stopped. “I’ll be honest, he’s a warrior and he should have been allowed to continue,” said Romero, who improved to 15-1 with 13 KOs. “He wanted to keep going and I wanted him to keep going as well.”
Romero continued, “There’s only two fights I want,” he said. “There’s the rematch with Tank Davis. But I think there’s a much bigger option. I want to go after Ryan Garcia. We can do it on Showtime PPV.”
He has no chance of getting a Gervonta Davis rematch and has not earned one. On this display, he would make a good option for a returning Ryan Garcia. The super lightweight division is stacked with champions Josh Taylor (WBO), Subriel Matias (IBF) and Regis Prograis (WBC), none of them will be having sleepless nights after watching Romero’s negative display.
