Rolly Romero puts losses, controversies behind him with UD win

LAS VEGAS – Rolando Romero has had more exciting nights and more spectacular victories, but on this night, he most certainly won’t mind that. After a tough sequence of outings, in which knockout losses to Gervonta Davis and Isaac Cruz surrounded a performance in which he was being beaten to the punch by 40-year-old Ismael Barroso before pulling out a highly contentious stoppage win, what Romero needed more than anything else was a clean, uncontroversial win, and that’s what he got against Manuel Jaimes at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Truth be told, the matchup – which opened up the PBC on Prime pay-per-view card headlined by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus Edgar Berlanga – wasn’t a great or even particularly good fight. But it was enough. At least the number of connected punches increased after an opening three minutes in which Jaimes was recorded as landing just one punch and Romero connected with precisely zero.

The frequently bombastic Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) was restrained during fight week and he was much the same inside the ropes on Saturday night, seemingly under instructions to box within himself, pay attention to fundamentals, not make any bad mistakes and take the openings when they presented themselves. Jaimes (16-2-1, 11 KOs) was game and never stopped attempting to take the fight away from Romero, but his own fundamentals were lacking, and he too often threw arm punches instead of digging his toes into the canvas, Romero, in contrast, remained compact throughout, working behind a solid guard and keeping his punches short and strong.

“Jaimes was coming forward a lot, but I was controlling the pace,” Romero said afterward. “The fight was going how I wanted it to.”

After that exceptionally quiet opening round, the pace gradually picked up, Jaimes constantly coming forward and looking to land overhand rights and Romero looking to slip, roll and counter. Jaimes had his fair share of connects, but they rarely appeared to have much impact, largely because Jaimes simply didn’t brace himself adequately when he threw.

The pattern of the fight soon became settled: Jaimes coming forward, Romero looking for openings and then unleashing two- or three-punch combinations that rattled Jaimes’ jaw and sent him off-balance. Romero’s success rate was aided by his use of a stiff jab and repeated ripping shots to Jaimes’ body that helped stymie every Jaimes advance and set the Las Vegan up for success with his combinations to the head.

“The judges saw what they saw,” Jaimes said after the fight. “I’d have to watch the tape to be able to score it myself. I could have been more active, that would have helped me land more.”

In all, it was a composed, relatively quiet, but ultimately dominant outing for Romero, who did enough each round to wind up as the winner of almost every three-minute block, as reflected in the 99-91 scores across the board.

“I needed a tough 10-round fight against someone hungry, and that’s what I got tonight,” Romero said. “I was doing a lot of stuff tonight that I should have done in my earlier fights.”

That isn’t what we’re used to from Romero, but right now, it was what he needed.

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.