Rolly Romero Did Not Compare Himself To Jesus! (Or Did He?)

Rolly Romero aka Rolando Romero aka Rollies aka the Guy You Love To Hate got stopped Saturday night in round eight of his battle with Isaac Pitbull Cruz in Las Vegas in support of the PBC/Prime debut on Amazon’s streaming service.

Predictably, many watchers applauded extra loud when the Mexican hitman Cruz took it to the Las Vegas resident Rolly Romero, and forced the ref to stop the contest at 56 seconds elapsed in the eighth.

Rolly Romero talks smack AND he takes tough tests, and he’s not boring

I wasn’t applauding, virtually or otherwise, at the time.

Rolly Romero Has No Shortage of Anti Fans

In the PPV.com live chat during the Rolly Romero bout, I was on the other side, with more of the chatters admitting their dislike of Rolly.

Or, if not “dislike,” then something close to that.

No shortage of people were totally cool with Romero, a notorious trash talker, got shut down.

Shut down for a spell— the 28 year old Romero showed a glimmer of his cocky side, which I admit I saluted, in his postfight interview center ring with Jordan Hardy. She’s doing the Jim Gray role for PBC Prime.

Hardy asked him what happened. He haltingly grabbed her mic, which she didn’t give up.

Rolly Romero did a Larry Merchant pause and said, “I wanna tell everybody, thank you for coming out, and honestly… happy Easter everybody. You guys….”

Rolly Romero spoke to NYF about this “controversy”

Plenty of people in the T-Mobile didn’t hear what he said, because they were booing. “Just like Jesus was resurrected, I’ll be back.”

There was a bit of blowback to that summation, but not so much because the heat magnet/work in progress Rolly likened himself to Christ, but because many thought he was out of it, and shouldn’t have been interviewed.

In that PPV.com, I “defended” the interview, and admitted I thought Rolly’s remark, in this strange age in which people use social media to press buttons/maintain buzz, was amusing.

The amount of people who said they thought PBC’s Hardy should NOT have interviewed Rolly Romero surprised me.

It’s a pretty new reaction, only in the last couple years is there a wider-spread belief that people who’ve just been knocked out (and possibly concussed) should not be interrogated, because they are not fully functional mentally.

Jordan’s hubby Caleb Plant defended her publicly. Remember, this is a new age where outrage and faux outrage gets rewarded with clicks and buzz.

Boxer Caleb Plant defends his missus, Jordan Hardy, who did her job on Saturday night, and queried Rolly Romero a couple minutes after he lost via TKO

I spoke to Rolly Romero on Monday night, 48 hours after his record dropped to 15-2.

First thing I wanted to know: does he think it was appropriate for him to be interviewed right after being stopped out on the ropes by a fairly savage Pitbull.

I told him my pre existing stance, that I thought it was not inappropriate…

Pitbull is now 26-2-1

“I asked to do it,” Rolly Romero told me. “But I didn’t want to answer questions. I wanted to tell everyone happy Easter because it’s my favorite holiday.”

OK, so did he have a decent Easter? “Spent it with my mom, and a love interest, that meant a lot.”

We touched on the fact that sometimes watchers aren’t sure when RR is not being facetious. “In reality, I didn’t care about whatever she asked, I wanted to speak about what I cared about,” Rolly Romero said. “Which was Easter, which means a lot to me.”

Rolly Romero then threw a question to the interrogator. “What colors did I wear?”

“Mmmmm… fuck if I know,” I admitted.

Rolly Romero might deserve more widespread props, for not being so afraid to lose

“Red, white and gold. Same colors Jesus wore,” he said, reiterating that “Easter meant a lot and I wanted to make sure everyone knew that.”

We chatted more, and it was an unexpected pleasure, because we got into the Beatles, particularly John Lennon. He’s more of a historian than I might have thought.

My Take: Rolly Romero is more what’s right about boxing than most are giving him credit for.

I will let that declaration just sit, and not work OT to help make that case.

Instead, check out the post Rolly Romero did on Monday: