Well, nobody saw that coming. Last night, on the Vergil Ortiz-Fredrick Lawson card in Las Vegas, 40 year old Ismael Barroso scored a quick, first round stoppage win over the much younger and favoured O’Hara Davies. Dropping Davies twice, Venezuela’s Barroso got the stoppage win after a mere 1:53 of round one.
And as bad a break as this was for Davies, who is now 25-3(18), it’s impossible not to feel good for Barroso, now 25-4-2(23) and the new WBA interim champ at 140 pounds. We all saw what happened to Barroso back in May of last year, when the veteran was the victim of one of the most seriously premature stoppage calls in recent memory. Barroso was beating Rolly Romero, ahead on all three cards as Barroso was, with him having also scored an early knockdown.
Then, after being pushed to the canvas in round nine, Tony Weeks, who had a bad night all round, with the third man calling the push a knockdown, inexplicably dived in and stopped the fight. All of Romero’s shots following the ‘knockdown’ missed. It was bad, and Barroso feared he would never fulfil his dream of becoming a world champion.
Now, courtesy of his hugely impressive win last night, Barroso can at least call himself an interim champion, actually a two-time interim champion, Barroso having won the WBA interim belt at lightweight back in 2016. Now Barroso wants the real thing and he deserves another big fight next. Speaking after last night’s big win, Barroso, a humble and extremely likeable guy, called out one man…….Rolly Romero.
“The public has been calling for the [rematch] fight with Romero, And I just want to say, I’m right here,” Barroso said.
Absolutely this rematch has to happen. Romero, who hasn’t fought since getting oh, so lucky last May, has to do the right thing and grant Barroso a return fight. Heck, the fight should be made to happen, no excuses. And if Barroso does get his hands of Romero again, look for him to win so long as Weeks (again under fire for having an itchy trigger finger, this after Weeks dived in to stop the Ortiz-Lawson fight last night, this in the opening round, with plenty of people disgusted at Week’s call) isn’t the referee that night!
For now, Ismael Barroso has given us boxing’s first ‘feel good’ moment of 2024.
Going into last night’s fight, Davies of the UK said he wasn’t sure if Barroso was that good, or if Romero merely made him look good. Now he knows.