Promoter Oscar De La Hoya believes that Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero is playing mind games by choosing not to engage in much trash talk during the promotion of his headliner fight against Ryan Garcia on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City.
Rolly’s Silence
De La Hoya feels that Rolly (16-2, 13 KOs) is playing a trick on Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) to make him think he’s going to be an easy win for him. In reality, Romero will come out like an angry bull, trying to destroy Ryan from the get-go.
“Fighters when they’re strong, when they want to come at you to try and knock you out like Rolly. If he can run into something, you have to be careful and always be alert,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fighthype. “I think Ryan is, especially after a year’s layoff, he’s out for some vengeance.”
There’s little chance that Kingry is overlooking Rolly just because he’s not trash-talking during the build-up to their fight on May 2nd. He likely figures that much of the cocky attitude Romero once had has been knocked out of him after his eighth round knockout loss to Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz last year on March 30th.
“He’s out to really prove and make a point. It’s interesting. All these mind games that fighters play,” said De La Hoya when asked about his thoughts on Rolly Romero not trash-talking during the build-up to his fight against Garcia. “A perfect example was. If you take a look at Bernard Hopkins when he fought me, he didn’t talk s*** at all.”
Garcia has been out of the ring for too long for him to looking down on Romero. He knows from their sparring session in the past that he’s a threat to him, and there’s too much money at stake for him to be assuming it’s going to be an easy victory.
Romero’s Intent
“So, he didn’t want to get me all amped up. So, I was like, ‘Bernard’s a nice guy.’ I went up to the ring, and sure enough, ‘Boom, boom, boom.’ That’s what happens. It’s psychological. I’m sure Ryan is in tip-top shape. He just has to be mentally focused on what Rolly is doing, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
“He [Romero] doesn’t want to p*** off Ryan, so he’ll train harder. He won’t have to exert himself and stay in the gym another hour and run another mile. Maybe that’s why Rolly isn’t talking s*** because he doesn’t want to bring out the best in Ryan,” said De La Hoya.
