Rolando Romero Holds No Grudge for J’Hon Ingram Leaking Sparring Videos
If there is one thing super lightweight boxer Rolando “Rolly” Romero (14-1, 12 KO’s) is known for, its hyping a fight. Armed with little more than an anemic professional record, oddball in-ring movements and a silver tongue for trash talk, Rolly has notched some lofty achievements. Most notably, he staged a very lucrative pay-per-view fight with Regular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis. Sometimes however, Rolly gets hit with the same brand of stones that he throws, as was the case recently with J’Hon Ingram.
SLINGING MUD
Nowadays, Rolly brightly shines when utilizing his verbal instigation skills whilst amongst the media or on social media. Yet, prior to having his present platform, it was all radio silence for the Las Vegas native. So, to generate some initial buzz, Romero, 27, leaked favorable sparring footage of himself despite the long-standing associated taboo.
As planned, industry and fan tongues got to wagging and Romero, ranked #5 (WBA), has been a staple in boxing news ever since. This is why Romero holds no grudge against J’Hon Ingram. Ingram leaked video of himself dropping Rolly in sparring. Yet, as Rolly explained on The Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer, you can’t be a player and hate the game.
“I wasn’t upset or any of that stuff. It just flushed more trash out of my life. Like I said, it boxing, its happened to everybody. In reality, I want to tell you guys the truth in all this. The person who started all that shit of posting sparring videos and sparring highlight videos was me. And I live by the sword. I stopped that shit like mid-2018 because I couldn’t get fights no more.”
“You can talk to Al [Haymon], you can talk to PBC . . . they’ll tell you that I was the most avoided person in boxing because they were all asking for too much money to fight me . . . so I am the one who created that game and it happened to me. I don’t really care, I done moved on from that life long ago.”
MAKING MOVES
Like his methods or not, Rolly is still very much a significant player in the sport and super lightweight division. In his next prizefight, on May 13, he’ll face Ismael Barroso (24-3-2, 22 KO’s) ranked #1 (WBA). With a win over Barroso however, Romero could potentially place himself in line for a duel with Super WBA 140-pound champion Alberto “La Avispa” Puello (21-0, 10 KO’s). If so, it’d stand as Romero’s second attempt for a world title
Actually, Romero was already slated to face Puello but the fight was cancelled after the champion was flagged for the banned substance clomiphene. For the time being though, the fate of his title still remains in limbo while Puello works with the sanctioning body and VADA to clear his name. Nevertheless, Rolly has done a masterful job of talking himself up the ladder. So let’s see just how high he can get.
