Rolando Romero claims WBA interim title with decision victory

Las Vegas native Rolando Romero was certain he would knock out Jackson Marinez Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Apparently he didn’t need to.

Romero (12-0, 10 knockouts) scored a controversial 118-110, 116-112, 115-113 decision over Marinez (19-1, seven KOs) to claim the interim WBA lightweight title in the co-feature of Showtime’s second boxing card during the coronavirus pandemic.

Marinez actually landed more jabs, power punches and total punches, but Romero was brash after the fight— insisting that he was the more active fighter.

“All he did was move around the entire fight,” said the 24-year-old Romero, who is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and fought past the sixth round for the first time in his career. “He didn’t even try to engage, so it’s hard to knock out someone who doesn’t want to get knocked out or doesn’t try to engage.”

Romero is among the most powerful punchers in the lightweight division. He was aggressive in the early rounds in an effort to stop the 29-year-old Dominican. But Marinez was prepared for Romero and evaded his wild, swinging hooks while establishing his presence in the middle rounds as his opponent fatigued.

He landed 103 punches to Romero’s 86, including 72 power punches to Romero’s 61, per CompuBox. He also threw 629 punches to Romero’s 509, but the judges sided with Romero, anyway.

Romero said he hopes his next fight is against a world titlist, a la Vasily Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney or Gervonta Davis.

Lomachenko and Lopez are set to fight October 17 at MGM Grand. Davis fights Leo Santa Cruz on Oct. 24. Haney is set to fight Oct. 3, though his opponent has not yet been finalized.

“The other champions are still not going to fight me,” Romero said.

In the main event, former WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs) rolled to a technical knockout victory over Roamer Alexis Angulo (26-2, 22 KOs). Benavidez was stripped of his title Friday after missing the contracted weight of 168 pounds, but still put forth a clinical performance — landing 703 punches to Alexis Angulo’s 51.

Alexis Angulo’s corner stopped the fight after the 10th round.

“I should be a professional and come in at weight. This time I couldn’t do it,” the 23-year-old Benavidez said on the telecast. “I’m not going to ask for a title shot right away. If they want to give it to me, good, but if they don’t, I don’t mind going to the back of the line and starting my way up from the bottom.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.