Rolando “Rolly” Romero Is Gifted A Shot At WBA 140-Pound Champ Alberto Puello

By Boxing News - 02/10/2023 - Comments

By Vince D’Writer: Despite the fact that he hasn’t competed in the 140-pound weight class, boxing contender Rolando “Rolly” Romero has somehow leapfrogged Gary Antuanne Russell and Ismael Barroso as he’s set to face the WBA super lightweight champion Alberto Puello (21-0, 10 KOs) in April, at a venue that has yet to be determined.

Back in May 2022, the WBA sanctioning body ordered the undisputed super lightweight champion Josh Taylor to make a mandatory defense against Alberto Puello. When Taylor neglected to submit an official response in a timely manner, the WBA decided to strip Taylor of his title belt.

As a result of the sanctioning body’s decision, Alberto Puello was scheduled to clash with Batyr Akhmedov in August for the vacant WBA 140-pound belt. The fight was an exciting, action-packed 12-round battle, as one judge scored the bout 115-113 in favor of Akhmedov, but that score was overruled by the other two judges, who both scored the contest 117-111 in favor of Alberto Puello.

In the original agreement, the winner of Puello-Akhmedov was supposed to fight Ismael Barroso (24-3, 22 KOs) within ninety days after winning the title. During the WBA’s annual convention that took place in December, the sanctioning body had a change of heart as talks started circulating in regards to Puello facing Gary Antuanne Russell.

Now the script has been flipped once again as Alberto Puello is set to defend his title against Rolly Romero. The challenger has never fought in the weight class, but he will enter the championship bout with a ranking of number seven in the WBA.

Romero’s ranking and title opportunity both fall under the category of generous, due to the fact that while Romero’s fighting for a belt, the WBA number six contender Gary Antuanne Russell (16-0, 16 KOs) and the number one ranked contender Ismael Barroso will both be on the sideline waiting for their opportunity.

The last time Rolly Romero competed inside the squared circle was May 2022 on pay-per-view, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, when he faced the WBA (regular) 135-pound champion Gervonta”Tank” Davis. Going into the sixth round, Romero was leading on one of the three scorecards when Davis abruptly ended the fight by landing a big counter left hand shot.

Despite suffering a knockout loss, Romero’s stock seemed to rise. Some fight fans took notice of how Romero was pressing forward and dictating the pace of the bout against Tank Davis. That’s what some fans thought they viewed, but what they actually witnessed was Davis allowing Romero to come forward because he was setting a trap, and Romero predictably took the bait in the sixth.

Rolando “Rolly” Romero (14-1, 12 KOs) is a charismatic boxer who has good power, but he has some glaring flaws. One of his flaws was on display earlier this week when a sparring video of Romero getting knocked out by prospect J’Hon Ingram (3-0, 3 KOs) was leaked to the public.

The irony of the video is the fact that J’Hon Ingram knocked Rolly Romero out by utilizing the same punch that Gervonta Davis landed to stop Romero in their grudge match. In regards to the decision to match Puello up against Romero, the question is, does he really deserve a title shot?

Seriously, how can a boxer coming off a loss at lightweight instantly become the seventh ranked super lightweight? One final question that should be answered is how can the sanctioning body justify bypassing Gary Antuanne Russell and Ismael Barroso to give a man coming off a loss in a lower weight class an opportunity to compete for a world title?