Last night had an interesting announcement as WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs)is scheduled to face Keith ‘One Time” Thurman (30-1, 22 KOS) on March 30. This morning, ESPN’s Mike Coppinger posted on X that the co-main will feature WBA junior welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly” Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) defending his title against Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs).
This news is a surprise, as junior welterweight contender Ryan Garcia posted last night on X that he was going to be fighting Romero after all the back and forth with his promoter. In a deleted post, Garcia said, “4-20 live on DAZN PPV tickets and location soon. It’s time to enter battle once again. I understand that there has been a lot of confusion, but this fight is happening. I’m happy to announce this. Everyone is going to post this soon don’t worry. I love guys. COMMENT WHAT YOU THINK? #GarciavsRomero”. Hours later, Coppinger tweeted the Romero vs. Cruz fight on March 30, misinforming Garcia.
Rolly Romero and Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz have finalized a deal to fight for Romero’s WBA 140-pound title on March 30 in Las Vegas, sources tell ESPN. Fight will serve as the PPV co-main to Tim Tszyu-Keith Thurman. Cruz moves up to 140 pounds for the title shot. pic.twitter.com/xRDu1Y51lD
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 25, 2024
Romero has been in the news a lot over the last few weeks as he made some ugly comments about Garcia and his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. “F$ck Princess Ryan Garcia, F*ck Oscar de la Fishnets, and f*ck DAZN, the shittiest streaming network out there for wasting my time, and more importantly, wasting the entire boxing world's time. It’s disgusting to see how you guys do business, then trying to go behind my back offering Pitbull an offer, then claiming I out priced myself. Y’all f*cked up. Now it’s Rolly Vs Pitbull on Amazon Prime, the largest network in boxing history. This fight is an explosion.”
This was after De La Hoya posted on X how fighters price themselves out and that the fight between Garcia and Jose Ramirez was close to being done. Also, WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez leaked some sparring footage of himself with Romero, where he got the better of him. Lopez and Romero were friends at one point, but that doesn’t seem like the case anymore. Romero is coming off a controversial win over Ismael Barroso, who recently destroyed Ohara Davies in one round.
Pitbull Cruz will now be moving up to junior welterweight for the first time in his career, and it will be for Romero’s WBA title. Cruz last fought in July and earned a split decision against Giovanni Cabrera. It’ll be interesting to see how Cruz does with the bigger Romero after he went the distance with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, now Abdul Wahid, in December 2021.
