In his first bout at super lightweight, Rolando “Rolly” Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) scored a controversial ninth round TKO over WBA #1 rated Ismael Barroso (24-4-2, 22 KOs) to claim the vacant WBA title on Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Slow start with the 40-year-old Barroso pressing the action. Barroso dropped Romero in round three. The knockdown seemed to wake up Rolly, who became more aggressive in round four, but was back on his bicycle in round five. Barroso continued to be the aggressor. Romero dropped Barroso in round nine (seemed like more of a push). The fight opened up and the fighters began to trade. Suddenly referee Tony Weeks inexplicably stopped the fight. Time was 2:41.
At the time of the stoppage, Barroso was ahead on all three cards 76-75, 77-74, 78-73.
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WOW 👀
Referee Tony Weeks stops the fight and @SignUp4KOs scores a TKO victory over Barroso to become the new WBA Super Lightweight champ 🏆 #RomeroBarroso pic.twitter.com/SseQxDNoQu
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) May 14, 2023
Barboso got robbed.. Ref made a bad call.
The ref made the call he was paid to make.
No matter the outraged he’ll be back referring another fight in no time soon.
I agree with you . Rolly should have never been fighting for a title anyway. He would of lost last night. That Mayweather money
Unfortunately, you’re probably right.
In 50+ years following this sport, this may be the most obviously biased stoppage I’ve ever seen in a televised main event fight. I’ve seen worse on in person fights, but this was ballsy beyond belief.
Perhaps this was to rescue the book makers, because it was a very generous line in favor of Romero and there was virtually no way for him to win at that point without a stoppage, or perhaps a few more push downs called as knockdowns.
People invested in this fraud….even if it was mistakenly stopped early…there were still tickets sold…flights booked…etc… basically money spent…to say do it again is a fraud..there needs to be a better system..no other sport..should have been some type of delay.. brief examination of the .problem..then off that evaluation by neutral parties a decision should be made to overule…reverse and continue…like the red flag in the NFL..THIS CONTINUES CAUSE AS FANS WE DON’T INSIST IN SOME SORT OF CHANGE…FIGHTERS SHOULD INSIST ON HAVING AN INSTANT REPLAY…at the contract phase.. JUST LIKE THEY DO WHEN IT COMES TO STEROID TESTING…to prevent drug cheats …etc…This can be prevented and controlled
Rolly absolutely sucks. Period. Worst fighter to ever hold a piece of a “world” title.
You must be new to boxing. You clearly ever heard of Carlos Maussa. There have been some awful fighters to win titles.
But Maussa won the title against a solid champion in a good fight winning by a real TKO, not a fabricated by a corrupt referee.
I can’t stand Romero but Charles Martin was worse and he held a part of the heavyweight title
Maussa was a good fighter
Gift for Rolly.. wow..
Wow. Weeks should be suspended along with the 114-114 judge. Worst knockdown and stoppage of the last 10yrs
Indeed! Knockdown was a push down and the stoppage shady..
Tony Weeks needs to be investigated. That was atrocious.
Wow nothing landed and they stopped the fight smh I’m sure Ryan Garcia destroys Rolly.
Who cares! Both of them are phony overrated hypes .
Barroso was landing some big shots on Rolly though.
Get these 60+ year old refs out of here. They can’t keep up with the fight. They don’t belong in the ring. It’s also the reason we have bad decisions because we have senior citizens trying to judge fights.
This is a young man’s game and that includes judges and refs.
Tony Weeks used to be one of the best refs in the game 20 years ago but now he is one of the worst. He needs to retire. Stop ruing people’s careers.
Tony Weeks wad NEVERa good ref!
He’s always been a tool of the highest bitter,
You clearly weren’t watching boxing in the early 2000s.
You sound ridiculous. You younger people can’t hold a glass of water. Anyway, Weeks was terrible but let’s not put age in this. You sound really silly. Maybe next time we’ll have a10yr calling the fight. Silly
Wow, I’m surprised usually Tony Weeks is a much better ref. A push knockdown and a terrible stoppage. at this new weight class rollie stands little to no chance. Btw he barely was winning against a 40 year old.
Rolly was behind on the scorecards
He wasn’t winning.
Tony Weeks had a horrible night. Hard to find any reasonable explaination for what he did.
Romero fights with his head up, so he’ll be knocked out soon enough.
Barroso is the roughest looking 40 year old I’ve ever seen. Double check that birth certificate.
what should we expect from a Las Vegas fight?
Tony Weeks is W E E K!
POS corrupt incompetent referee!
BS folly was down by 4 points and the knockdown. Was a push
What a bullshit stoppage unbelievable
typical showtime boxing show the same crap judges showed the same crap same crap announcers showed up and the same crap referees when are they going to clean up boxing???
Bloody robbers. How do these pieces of shit sleep at night?
With a full wallet
tony weeks should retire
Seems like a hometown stoppage. Knockdown was a push, he was a bit stunned before that. But other than that Rolly ran for rounds. Barosso didn’t do much, but he didn’t deserve that. Another black eye for boxing. Neither guy deserved a title shot, but Barosso looked on his way to winning a decision. Rolly is lunchmeat at 140
Tony Weeks did an appalling job tonight, twice in the same fight. 1st calling a questionable knockdown in favor of Romero and 2nd calling a stoppage for Rolly when there were no significant punches and Barroso was still lucid in the fight.
Bad night for boxing, Barroso was ahead and was robbed (intentional or unintentionally)
Pretty sure this will wind up a no-contest. They wouldn’t even take interviews afterwards – such BS
Lousy move by ref to stop this fight. Romero the mouse absolutely pathetic, and was losing this fight. No wonder he got knocked senseless by Tank.
O.G. Got robbed dirty! Even though they robbed him, he is the big winner and rolly just showed he’s not ready for the major leaguers! He ran most if the fight! I have no idea on why making rolly a paper champ when he baddly struggle against ol’ man! There would be no interest at all making a ppv fight between rolly and who ever top dog they put him with! Ol’ man was the big winner, the boxing fan know it and should hold his head of high!
A lousy chain of events for Weeks because that stoppage was CLEARLY WRONG. Romero was starting to finally gain confidence by closing the distance more, and it was possible Romero could have closed out the fight with a late TKO; but we will never know because Weeks displayed lousy judgment tonight.
Tonight, professional judging “experts” failed to properly exercise quality, objective judgments (no shocker, though).
I boxed both am and pro in 50s and early 60s, but have never seen such a horrid stoppage. Barroso won that fight – pure and simple. This marks the end of watching the ‘fights’ for me – both golf and volleyball are more exciting and fair.
50s and 60s?
How are you,684?
1950s and 1960s. Surely you can understand that.
Sarcasm, surely you an understand that.
Second time Rolly awarded with a world title under dubious circumstances. Really a shame for boxing
Total sham. Frauds like Weeks and Rolly are reason the sport of boxing has gone down hill.
The WORST stoppage in boxing history. Tony Weeks needs to be arrested. I bet he was paid to do that. He clearly took a bribe. Why? I have no idea. What I do know is that Weeks should be expelled, the results changed to a No Decision, and a criminal investigation started. Whomever paid Tony Weeks will have their enterprise destroyed too. Lock Tony Weeks Up. Expel him for life.
What needs to happen, really, cause thus corruption in boxing needs to stop
What can be done I am disappointed at how tarnished this sport has become, Rolly did not deserve the fight to begin with and now he is a Champion who was gifted this victory by way of suspected stoppage….Weeks C’mon you made a horrible call why
Im telling you peeps WAKE UP!
PBC is trying to monopolize the sport
By getting their fighters to hold as many belts as possible and all they will do is rotate them amongst their fighters as much as possible to keep the belts and event earnings in house
The ONLY way that PBC will negotiate one of their fighters against top or popular fighters from other promotional companies is to nske extreme demands that can cause a fight to not happened because of the ridiculous demands and if the opposing fighter and promotional company accept PBCs term they will be selling themselves short one way or another, best example is how they did Ryan, also another thing that people should understand is that Tank is the face of PBC he is their cash cow
So how would it look if Rolly lost to a 40 yr old guy that would then in turn reflect on Tank by way of criticism and questions about his win victory over Rolly…not good
So the best thing for PBC is to make Tanks opponents that are stablemates look good do that Tanks victory over them looks even better
Well, the checks in the mail for Tony Weeks. Hey, and the Las Vegas boxing commission has assured him he’ll ref the Romero / Garcia PPV in Oct!
Romero….BORING AND OVERLY HYPED
Referee…..Needs eyes checked and investigated
Better check the refs wallet instead. Wonder how much they paid him to first make believe that was a knockdown, and then stop the fight for no reason except Romero being way behind on the scorecards.
The WBA should change the result to a no contest; I believe they will. No knockdown and a bad stoppage in the ninth round The bad part is that we will have to watch it again. I think they threw only 100 punches between them the entire fight. Ouch
Please realize you are talking about the WBA here…
Like the WBA didn’t know this would happen?
You do realize this is the same organization that decided Rolly deserved the title shot in the first place. This also the SECOND time Rolly’s been gifted a WBA title….
This was a disgrace to the sport. Romero didn’t deserve a title fight and then they had to figure out a way to give it to him. The Nevada Commission needs to save face and suspend Weeks, review the footage, and rule this a no-contest. Unfortunately, at 40 years of age, Barboso may not be able to repeat the same performance.
BS stoppage Barroso would have got the KO win.
Romero jumped like a jackrabbit whenever Barroso flashed his left hand. As a matter of fact, he ran all around the ring throughout most of the fight. He was effective when he stood his ground and attacked, but it just didn’t happen in the first half of the fight. He actually looked gunshy.
As for the stoppage, Romero didn’t land any punches worth talking about in that final flurry. I was shocked when Tony Weeks jumped in and stopped the fight. Terrible stoppage. I can’t believe Weeks is that incompetent, so something else must be at work here. Possibly a strong hint from the promoters before the fight to give Romero every chance to win.
Romero looked like the inexperienced fighter he really is throughout most of the fight. He just didn’t look anything like a top fighter at 140 lbs. He’ll get handed his lunch by any of the top fighters in that division. His punching power sure didn’t look like it translated to the higher weight class, whenever he actually stood his ground and punched like he meant it. His future doesn’t look bright as a super lightweight.
Hey Tony Weeks, next time just stop it during national anthems.
This is the same corrupt ref who let Andre Ward end the fight with Kovalev with a deliberate and measured punch right to the nuts.
The fix could not be more blatant. I’ve been watching boxing for 45 years, never seen anything like it.
True-usually not quite this obvious.
FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t mind the knockdown..I’m tired of guys getting hurt by a punch, holding for dear life, then fighter pushes him for room, and guy goes down, they call it a push. Those should all be knockdowns. If you’re holding, wobbly from a shot and wind up going down, that’s your fault..stoppage was ridiculous.
Pushing is not a legal move, so it cancels the knockdown. It’s up to the attacker to control himself.
Next fight Rolly is in trouble..
All we need to do is look at his contract. He is promoted by whom? Bingo. Corruption is a multi headed old snake in boxing. A brief history shows many of the snakes head. Carbo, King, Arum, Sulaimán, Haymond.
Rolly didn’t stop a dammmm thing, Fire Tony Meeks asssss!
Even if it is not the case, this fight just has “fixed” written all over it.
Just watched again – for the last time. At first blush it appeared the ref stopped for Romero and Barroso was declared the winner – much more plausible outcome given that Romero was clearly beaten. After 70+ years of participating in the sport I am done!
Barroso was landing the bigger shots in that exchange.
This makes Richard Steele’s stoppages of Chavez-Taylor I and Tyson-Ruddock I appear reasonable and justified by comparison. I’ve been following boxing for thirty-two years and I never thought I’d see the day when a ref just decides to stop a fight when neither fighter was tagged by a significant punch or was in any trouble at the time of the stoppage. It’s disappointing this is the same ref that halted Corrales-Castillo I so brilliantly all those years ago, only to appear so corrupt in his officiating now.
Romero was saved by the referee.
bad call the belt should be given to barbossa this fight couldput a really black mark on boxing and showtime boxing dont even know that a rematch would be in order just one big mess
Might as well put the title on Tony Weeks. Robbery
3 Jokes here:
1) The fact that Rolly was actually fighting for the title… This comes under the category of: Are you freaking kidding me !!
2) The fact that Rolly Romero is actually a world champion !! In my opinion, Rolly is probably the least skilled world champion, in any weight class in the last 25 years… The guy flat out sucks !
3) And finally, the whole Tony Weeks debacle ! Cannot believe the guy actually sold his integrity to the WBA. His career is basically over, you cannot behave with that level of blatant corruption, and expect to ever ref a high stakes championship fight again… you sir, are done !