Rolando Romero and Ismael Barroso squared off in the main event live on Showtime from The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Saturday, May 13. The contest featured Las Vegas native up against fellow former world title challenger and interim titleholder from Venezuela. The pair battled it out for the vacant WBA super lightweight title.
The scheduled for 12 rounds world championship bout didn’t go the full distance. Barroso dropped Romero in the third round and scored a knockout. Romero secured an eight count in Round 9, after he punched/pushed Barroso to the canvas.
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Referee Tony Weeks stepped in and waved the fight off at 2 minutes and 41 seconds into the ninth round. A few considered it was a premature stoppage.
Post-fight both fighters said the fight shouldn’t have been stopped.
At the time of the stoppage, Romero was down on all three scorecards: 78-73, 77-74, 76-75.
I want the rematch with Tank Davis and go after Ryan Garcia
Ultimately, Rolando Romero improved to 15-1, 13 KOs and took the WBA super lightweight belt. In his previous bout a year ago, the 27-year-old was stopped by Gervonta Davis in the first round.
“I’ll be honest, he’s a warrior and he should have been allowed to continue,” said Romero. “He wanted to keep going and I wanted him to keep going as well.”
“The first punch was when I had him hurt to begin with. It was right on the nose, it was a little clip.”
“I boxed the entire time. I came in a little cold. I got cracked and I got up like a champion and kept going.”
“There’s only two fights I want. 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.”
‘I don’t understand why they stopped the fight’
El Tigre, Venezuela-born, Miami, Florida-based Ismael Barroso dropped to 24-4-2, 22 KOs. The 40-year-old took the fight on a fairly short notice, replacing former champion Alberto Puello.
“I think it was an injustice to stop the fight,” said Barroso. “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.”
Check out Rolando Romero vs Ismael Barroso full fight video highlights below.
Romero vs Barroso full fight video highlights
Ismael Barroso makes his ring walk.
Here comes Rolando Romero.
Barroso dominates and drops Romero in round 3.
Romero pays back in Round 9.
Referee stops the fight.
Post-fight.
In Australia, the event aired live on Sunday, May 14.
Get Romero vs Barroso full fight card results.
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