Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) will defend his WBA light welterweight title against lightweight Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs) in the co-feature of Tim Tszyu vs. Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman on a loaded Amazon Prime Video PPV card on March 30th in Las Vegas.
Although Rolly had talked of wanting to fight Ryan Garcia next, he’ll be facing 135-pounder ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, who will be coming up in weight to challenge for the title. ESPN confirms that Rolly vs. Cruz will be added to the Tszyu-Thurman card on the Amazon Prime Video PPV card, along with Erislandy Lara vs. Michael Zerafa.
Nothing has been said yet about Rolly’s mandatory, WBA interim 140-lb champion Ismael Barroso, who is supposed to be next. It’s believed that a step aside will be given to the 40-year-old Barroso to allow Rolly to defend against ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.
Romero: The Defending Champion
It’s unknown why Rolly is choosing to defend his WBA 140-lb title against the lightweight Isaac Cruz rather than his WBA mandatory, Ismael Barroso at light welterweight
. Boxing fans would have preferred that Rolly at least defend against someone from the 140-lb division rather than pooling from the 135-lb weight class to pick a much smaller fighter than himself, as that looks very weak on his part,.
Rolly, 29, will be coming off a 10-month layoff when he enters the ring to defend his WBA light welterweight title for the first time after winning it in a controversial fashion with his ninth round TKO victory last May against Barroso in Las Vegas.
That fight saw the 40-year-old Barroso dominating Rolly, dropping him and beating him until the strange stoppage in the ninth round. Referee Tony Weeks suddenly jumped in and stopped the fight after Rolly threw a wild flurry with all the punches hitting the air. Interestingly, the results of the fight weren’t overturned.
The tiny 5’5″ Pitbull Cruz is coming off a narrow 12-round split decision win over Giovanni Cabrera last July in defense of his WBC silver lightweight title. That was not a great performance from Cruz, as he gassed out in the later rounds and was hit a lot by Cabrera.
The win for Pitbull was his third since losing a 12-round decision to WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta Davis in 2021. Boxing fans believe Cruz has been taking it easy, fighting soft opposition waiting & hoping for a rematch with Tank.