Shawn Porter: Rolly Romero ‘underperformed,’ should trust trainer Ismael Salas

Former welterweight titleholder Shawn Porter was unimpressed with Rolando “Rolly” Romero’s performance against Manuel Jaimes last Saturday.

Romero, a 28-year-old junior welterweight from Las Vegas, returned to winning ways in a unanimous decision victory over Jaimes, 24, of San Jose, on the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga undercard at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Although all three judges scored the bout 99-91 in favor of Romero (16-2, 13 KOs), Porter thinks the fighter failed to do anything significant against Jaimes. 

“I can say he underperformed,” said Porter on his “The PorterWay” podcast. “It seems like he didn’t know how to set it. He doesn’t know how to set up the things he used to be doing.”

Romero, a former 140-pound titleholder, was returning to the ring for the first time since losing his title to Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz six months ago. The fight with Jaimes was expected to build Romero’s confidence back up, and Porter had anticipated Romero maintaining his status as one of the best at 140.

“I knew it was coming in,” Porter said. “I was like, this is a perfect opponent for Rolly to show off and get back to being that one-hitter-quitter kind of guy. That, to me, is what he needed to stay at that top, elite level.

“His name and the fact that people are still looking forward to seeing him in press conferences and in big fights and stuff like that are going to keep him where he’s at.”

Porter said he’s worried about Romero losing his spot at the top of the sport if he continues to produce such underwhelming performances. 

“Another fight like this, where it’s pretty dry, you’re not landing anything big and you’re bouncing so far, the way that you won’t let anybody else land anything … boxing ain’t going to take too many more of those.”

Porter advised Romero to stick with respected Cuban trainer Ismael Salas to transform his talent. He believes Salas can help Romero improve on his technical abilities.

“If I had advice for Rolly today, I would say keep working with Salas and believe in what he’s teaching you,” Porter said. “He’s teaching you the fundamentals, how to add 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. How to do that fast math that we have to do in fights. And trust it, believe in it, and then take that.”

Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].