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NEW YORK – Rolando Romero doesn’t just think he was beating Gervonta Davis convincingly when Davis drilled him with the left hand that instantly ended their fight in the sixth round early Sunday morning at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The 26-year-old Romero believes his power actually “terrified” Davis once his rival felt his strength early in their Showtime Pay-Per-View fight. It was Davis’ power that Romero couldn’t take, however, and Romero addressed the tactical mistake he made during their post-fight press conference.
“I just wouldn’t jump into a shot like that again,” said Romero, who requested an immediate rematch. “Like I said, I had him running like a bitch the entire fight. And like I said, he got a nice shot in. That’s all that happened. He got hurt multiple times and he ran around. He was terrified of me, and I doubt he’ll do the rematch again.”
The shorter Davis used his legs throughout their bout to avoid an aggressive Romero. He also held the rugged Romero once Romero landed flush punches during the second and fifth rounds.
“He was running around,” Romero said. “I mean, he got hurt multiple times throughout the entire fight. So, I’ll be honest with you – that referee helped him a lot. All he would do is hold me and hold me and hold me, and that’s that.”
Referee David Fields stopped their 12-round, 135-pound championship match with 11 seconds to go in the sixth round. A staggered Romero reached his feet in time to beat Fields’ count, but Fields was concerned about the way Romero responded to his commands and waved an end to their bout.
North Las Vegas’ Romero (14-1, 12 KOs) wanted to continue, but he was obviously disoriented when Fields commanded him to walk side to side and toward the veteran referee. Romero didn’t protest Fields’ stoppage in the ring and didn’t complain about it afterward.
“I mean, I’m a warrior,” Romero said. “I wanted to continue to fight, so, I mean, if I could’ve continued, I would’ve continued.”
Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) landed only 25 punches overall in almost six full rounds of action, according to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics. CompuBox counted three fewer punches for Romero (22).
Judge Kevin Morgan had Romero ahead of Davis, 48-47, entering the sixth round. Davis led on the scorecards of Ron McNair (49-46) and Robin Taylor (48-47) through five rounds.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.