SAN ANTONIO – Rolando Romero’s trainer wasn’t the least bit surprised that another opponent didn’t come close to making weight Friday afternoon.
It wasn’t just the communication among their camps late Friday morning that confirmed Cromwell Gordon’s suspicions about Anthony Yigit’s weight. Gordon never expected the Swedish southpaw to get down to the 135-pound limit for what was supposed to be a 12-round fight for Romero’s WBA interim lightweight title on the Jermell Charlo-Brian Castano undercard.
“I expected him to not make weight,” Gordon told BoxingScene.com after Yigit officially weighed 140.2 pounds at the Thompson San Antonio-Riverwalk hotel. “Just put it like that, because he’s not a 35-pounder. And if he would’ve came in at 54, we didn’t care. We were gonna fight.”
Unlike the previous weigh-in drama Romero endured, Yigit remains in a co-featured fight Showtime will televise from AT&T Center (9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT).
Las Vegas’ Romero (13-0, 11 KOs) could’ve come in heavier than the lightweight limit because the contracted maximum for their weigh-in was bumped up to 140 pounds prior to them stepping on the Texas Combative Sports Program’s scale. The 25-year-old Romero still weighed in at 135 pounds.
“I was gonna make him pay even if he made weight,” Romero told BoxingScene.com. “Now I’ll really make him pay.”
Romero weighed in at 134½ pounds for his previous fight 5½ months ago. Avery Sparrow replaced Justin Pauldo on approximately 30 hours’ notice January 22, when Pauldo was nearly five pounds overweight for his 12-round fight against Romero.
The Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation removed Pauldo from that bout because he failed his pre-fight physical after twice coming in overweight, heavier on his second try (139.6) than his first attempt (138.6). Romero knocked out Philadelphia’s Sparrow (10-3, 3 KOs, 1 NC), who was on the card in case anything prevented Pauldo or Romero from fighting, in the seventh round January 23 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Stockholm’s Yigit (24-1-1, 8 KOs) has never weighed in at less than 138½ pounds for a professional fight.
Like Sparrow, however, he was on standby in case anything prohibited Austin Dulay from facing Romero on Saturday night. Nashville’s Dulay (14-2, 10 KOs, 1 NC) withdrew from their fight due to a knee injury.
“To be honest, I don’t feel like he took the fight on short notice,” Romero said in reference to Yigit. “I took the fight on short notice. I’m the one with a last-minute opponent. He knew he was [Dulay’s] replacement, so he should’ve been prepared. He knew he was [Dulay’s] replacement. Same thing with Pauldo and Sparrow. I wasn’t Sparrow’s last-minute opponent. He knew about me for months. He was my last-minute opponent that I didn’t even know about.”
Regardless, Romero appreciates that an intense training camp didn’t go to waste.
“I’m happy that I have an opponent to begin with,” Romero said. “I’m pissed off that he wants to be a fat f—. That’s still unprofessional, but whatever. Sh!t, I wanna be a 40-pounder anyway or a 47-pounder. So, it don’t f—–g matter. I’ve got the power here. I punch hard, so it doesn’t matter what weight class they come in at. I’m still gonna take their head off.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.