Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero took to Instagram today to lash out at Ryan Garcia, promoter Oscar De La Hoya, and DAZN over his failed negotiations.
WBA light welterweight champion Rolly views it as a bait-and-switch move by Ryan and De La Hoya, who, after bailing with talks for a fight with him, offered a fight with lightweight contender Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz. This move makes Rolly feel like Ryan was never serious about fighting him.
In Rolly’s Instagram post, he said he’s fighting Pitbull Cruz next on Amazon Prime, which doesn’t add up because Ryan has already offered him a fight. Pitbull will go in the direction for the bigger payday, which would likely be against Ryan because he’s the one with a large social media following and the more popular fighter.
It’s unclear whether Rolly can fight Pitbull next because his WBA mandatory is due against Ismael Barroso, and he’s yet to defend his title since winning it seven months ago in a controversial ninth-round stoppage against that fighter in May 2023. The mandatory against Barroso is due.
That was the fight in which referee Tony Weeks jumped in and stopped the fight in the ninth round, giving Rolly a knockout win over Barroso, who was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Rolly’s punches in the final sequence hit air, but Weeks stopped it anyway.
If PBC wants to place Rolly vs. Pitbull on Amazon Prime PPV, that might motivate Cruz to go in that direction, but that doesn’t sound realistic. Rolly isn’t a PPV fighter, and a match against Pitbull would bomb terribly if Amazon Prime put it on pay-per-view.
Cruz has been playing it safe since his loss to Gervonta Davis in 2021, and it’s believed that he’s been trying to protect his record so that Tank would give him a rematch, which hasn’t happened, and it probably never will.
“Princess Ryan Garcia, [bleep’ Oscar de la Fishnets, and [bleep] DAZN, the worst streaming network out there, for wasting my time, and more importantly, wasting the entire boxing world’s time,” said Rolly on Instagram. “It’s disgusting to see how you guys do business, then trying to go behind my back offering Pitbull an offer, then claiming I priced myself out. Y’all messed up.
“Now it’s Rolly Vs Pitbull on Amazon Prime, the largest network in boxing history. This fight is an explosion.”
