By Sean Jones: Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (14-1, 12 KOs) will be backing into his second consecutive title fight when he takes on WBA light welterweight champion Alberto Puello (21-0, 10 KOs) on May 13th on Showtime Championship Boxing at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The Puello-Romero event begins at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
Rolly was knocked out in the sixth round by WBA secondary lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis last May.
Undercard fights:
Rances Barthelemy vs. Omar Juarez
Batyr Akhmedov vs. Kenneth Sims Jr
Ranked #6 with the World Boxing Association at 140, Rolly doesn’t deserve to be fighting for a world title ahead of #5 WBA Gary Antuanne Russell, but he’s well-connected, being promoted by Mayweather Promotions and has a large social media following with 263K followers on Instagram.
Ideally, it would look better if the promoters for Rolly waited until he at least got a couple of wins under his belt to bounce back from his loss to Tank before putting him in against Puello, but it appears they’re in a hurry.
The way Rolly fell apart against Tank, it’s questionable whether he could be trusted not to lose if he were matched against contenders at 140, even the bottom-ranked ones. Gary Antuanne Russell would likely make easy work of Rolly, but it would have been nice to find out if he could have earned a title shot instead of giving it to him on a silver platter.
“I’m excited to become a world champion on May 13,” said Rolly Romero. “Everyone knows what I bring to the ring. It’s going to be an entertaining show. I hope Puello comes in 100% because I’m ready to show that I’m an elite fighter in this division.”
Unless Rolly makes huge improvements over how he looked in his loss to Tank Davis and his controversial twelve-round unanimous decision win over Jackson Marinez in 2020, he will lose to Puello, and his career, such as it is, will be a dumpster fire.
Puello, 28, won the vacant WBA 140-lb title last August, beating Batyr Akhmedov by a twelve-round split decision.
“This is a big opportunity for ‘Rolly,’ and there’s no doubt that he’s going to make the most of it,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe about his fighter Rolly Romero.
“He’s focused on preparing to get back in the ring, and I know that he’s looking forward to putting on a great show for the fans on May 13.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Mayweather Promotions sticks with Rolly if he gets knocked out by Puello. If Rolly can’t beat Puello, who arguably is the weakest link among the champions at 140, it’s safe to say that he will never win a world title at light welterweight.
As big as Rolly is, he can’t return to 135 and be a weight bully in that division, but predictably, he’ll try because it’s either that or slip into anonymity at 140.
Rolly probably isn’t good enough to be a gatekeeper at light welterweight because he would get wiped out by the likes of Jose Ramirez, Gary Antuanne Russell, Arnold Barboza, Josee Zepeda, Ryan Garcia, Jeremias Ponce, and Brandun Lee.