Rolando Romero wins WBA super lightweight title on controversial stoppage but wanted more
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Rolando Romero (left) punching Ismael Barroso in the ninth round of their fight for the vacant WBA super lightweight title on May 13.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – American Rolando Romero defeated Venezuela’s Ismael Barroso with a controversial ninth-round stoppage to win the vacant World Boxing Association super lightweight title on Saturday.
Referee Tony Weeks stopped the bout at 2min 41sec of the ninth round in Las Vegas with Romero swinging but not landing against Barroso in the corner.
“He was a warrior. He wanted to keep going. He should have been able to keep going,” Romero said after the victory.
“I wanted to keep going. He wanted to keep going. We both wanted to keep going.”
Instead, Romero improved to 15-1 with his 13th victory inside the distance, capturing a world crown in his debut in the 63.5kg division.
Barroso, a 40-year-old southpaw, fell to 24-4 with two draws, missing a chance to become only the 10th boxer to win a world title past his 40th birthday.
“I think it was an injustice to stop this fight,” Barroso said through a translator. “I was giving the best shots.”
Romero, 28, was knocked down for only the second time in his career by a punishing left to the head from Barroso late in the third round.
“I boxed the entire time,” Romero said. “I came in a little cold, I got cracked and I finished the round like a champion and I kept going and I got the victory.”
The American was somewhat inactive for several rounds, being careful to avoid more punishing shots, with Barroso landing another hard left to Romero’s head in the sixth.
“I took my time, moved around. The man is strong. I had to be careful with him,” Romero said.
“You think I wanted to get caught by one of those? I knew he could crack.”
Romero knocked down Barroso in the opening seconds of the ninth round, although the latter called it more of a push down.
“The first punch is where I had him hurt,” Romero said.
Romero began swinging wildly in the corner without success late in the round before Weeks stepped in to end matters.
“He just stopped the fight. He didn’t tell me anything,” Barroso said. “You could see it clearly. I was hitting him. There was nothing he was hitting me with clearly. I don’t understand.”
Meanwhile, Australia’s Jason Moloney won his first world title on Saturday.
He had a majority decision over Filipino Vincent Astrolabio for the vacant World Boxing Organisation bantamweight crown.
The 32-year-old won on judges’ scores of 115-113 and 116-112 with the third judge scoring 114-114 in the showdown at Stockton, California.
Moloney improved to 26-2, suffering his only losses in two earlier world title bouts, while Astrolabio, 26, fell to 18-4. AFP
