By: Hans Themistode
Rolando “Rolly” Romero continued his winning way this past Saturday night. The WBA interim 135-pound belt holder crushed late replacement opponent, Anthony Yigit.
Before the two stepped into the ring, both men stepped onto the scales. Needless to say, Rolly wasn’t too pleased as Yigit came in 5.5 pounds over the weight limit. While the Las Vegas, resident could have opted to step away from their showdown, he simply shrugged his shoulders and agreed to take him on anyway. The extra weight of Yigit proved to make no difference though, as he was dropped twice and ultimately stopped in the seventh.
While the crowd at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas appeared to be impressed, one person who wasn’t, was Devin Haney.
The WBC 135 pound belt holder watched closely from his palatial estate and offered harsh criticism.
“Rolly is a pile of sh*t,” said Haney on his social media account.
With Haney’s words catching the attention of Rolly, he immediately offered to take him on and quickly followed that up with an evaluation of Haney’s most recent performance against Jorge Linares.
“I’ll fight Devin Haney,” said Rolly during the post-fight presser. “He’s chinny as hell, he got hurt with Venum gloves, that’s a joke.”
The gloves that Rolly is referring to, were worn by Linares when he took on Haney on May 29th earlier this year. While the 22-year-old dominated most of the action, Linares landed a game changing blow in the 10th as he wobbled his man. For the duration of their contest, Haney avoided any long exchanges and instead, looked to grab and hold until the final bell.
In Rolly’s opinion, he isn’t focusing solely on how Haney was rocked during the championship rounds. Instead, he points to something else that was far more alarming.
“It’s not even that he just got hurt, he didn’t recover. It was like four rounds that he didn’t recover.”
To further back his claims that Haney has major chin issues, Rolly juxtaposes his young rival to another former talented fighter who also had problems of his own whenever someone landed their money shot right on the button.
“Linares is nowhere near the punch like me. He’s (Devin Haney) probably the chinnest fighter at 35, if not the most chinnest in the entire sport. He’s the Amir Khan of 135.”