Rolando “Rolly” Romero returns to action tonight on Showtime. Ismael Barroso for the vacant WBA 140 lb title in the 12-round main event from Las Vegas.
It will be Romero’s first actual world title fight in his first bout at 140, stepping up from light about a year after getting knocked out by Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Wil Esco will have round-by-round for all three fights starting at 9 pm ET, and we’ll have live updates, highlights, and results in this stream:
Along with the main event, we’ll see veteran Rances Barthelemy take on Omar Juarez in a 10-rounder, and Batyr Akhmedov face Kenneth Sims Jr in a WBA eliminator at 140, meaning the winner of that fight is in theory in line for a shot at the winner of the main event.
Main Card (SHO, 9:00 pm ET)
Rolando Romero (14-1, 12 KO) vs Ismael Barroso (24-3-2, 22 KO), junior welterweights, 12 rounds, for vacant WBA title
Rances Barthelemy (29-2-1, 15 KO) vs Omar Juarez (14-1, 5 KO), junior welterweights, 10 rounds
Batyr Akhmedov (9-2, 8 KO) vs Kenneth Sims Jr (19-2-1, 7 KO), junior welterweights, 12 rounds, WBA eliminator
Rolando “Rolly” Romero might not remain in the 140-pound division too long.
Romero made weight comfortably enough for his super lightweight debut Saturday night, but the provocative contender wants pay-per-view fights moving forward. If those opportunities aren’t available in his new division, Romero claimed after he weighed in Friday afternoon for his WBA 140-pound title fight against Ismael Barroso that he’ll move up to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.
“I mean, I can stay here [at 140 pounds],” Romero told a group of reporters. “That’s not the problem. But I wanna be at ’47. I don’t wanna be at ’40. I wanna be at ’47. The only way I’m gonna fight at ’40 is if I’m getting pay-per-view fights because those are what I find entertaining. Otherwise, I’m gonna go up to ’47 and make all those fights happen up there.”
Romero again mentioned fighting unbeaten IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
It seems Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) will finally fight WBO 147-pound champ Terence Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) next in a much-anticipated title unification fight. Spence obviously would be heavily favored to beat Romero and would have little to gain by boxing the former WBA interim lightweight champ.
Nevertheless, Romero said, “Spence has a lotta belts. I like Spence. I’m telling you, I like that Spence fight idea. I really do like that Spence fight.”
“I’m thinking about pay-per-views,” Romero said. “I ain’t thinking about no belts. After this, man, I’m just thinking about pay-per-views. That’s all I want. I want pay-per-views. I wanna show everybody I’m the biggest star in boxing.”
“Ryan, Tank, me and Cruz at 140,” Romero said. “That’s a good [fight]. We can put that on pay-per-view.”
Romero has been the “B” side of one pay-per-view event in his career, his loss to Davis.