Following the widely condemned stoppage win for Rolando Romero over Ismael Barroso, Romero’s trainer takes some time to talk to Fight Hub TV about his perspective on everything that went down and why he believes Romero could’ve ended up killing Barroso had the fight been allowed to continue. Check out some excerpts of what he had to say below.
Coach Bullet on his thoughts on how the fight went
“I loved the fact that he didn’t care nothing else but the job that he had to do. He had to be patient, he had to move his feet and get the older guy tired, because the guy can crack. He got 24 wins, 22 knockouts, those numbers are not lies...We had to be smart and Rolly showed that he can use his legs as much as he can punch and that’s just maturation and that’s just him using all the tools out of his tool kit, especially the patience tool. And that’s what we discussed all camp, patience.”
On Romero getting dropped in the second round
“It was more like an off-balance, flash knockdown. It wasn’t nothing that was (too serious). When you come off a fight where you got hit before and you got stopped, it’s hard to bounce back from that. People don’t know that. You’ve got to go back in the ring and experience that so you can get past that trauma. So mentally he passed the test.”
On his sense of how the fight was going into the second half
“After that (first) knockdown I felt that we got behind because of course that’s a 10-8 round, that’s two rounds easy in the beginning of the fight. But at the end of the day, our game plan was just move our feet and get this guy tired. We don’t care that the points that happens in the first six rounds — we didn’t care. I didn’t care if he landed five punches a round, I just wanted him to get that dude tired because I don’t want that dude being fresh, shooting shots at him. It’s a dangerous person, you don’t play them.
“Once we saw the sign of him wearing down and getting slower on the step, we knew the game plan was coming into effect. Listen, the game plan was perfect.” [Editors note: Romero was down on all three official cards at the time of stoppage, with BLH having it wide in Barroso’s favor].
“I’m happy that he listened, I’m happy that he executed and that’s why he’s a champion right now.”
On what he saw during the exchange where the stoppage was called
“Well, honestly the stoppage to me, I didn’t like the stoppage. But I’m gonna tell you something, Nevada state is already under some pressure about people getting hurt in the ring unnecessarily. Rolly kept going another round or two with that, he would kill that dude. Because once you’re tired, you’re done. So what do they want, do they want him to kill him?! Then what, he knocks him out, ‘oh, he beat up an old guy.’
“The ref did his job, like how millions of fights referees do their job and they get praised for it or booed for it. You don’t boo the fighter because another person made a decision...but he saw that the dude was hurt, he was hurt hurt. So, you know Rolly punch hard so he’s gonna kill him.”
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