Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero vs. Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz have finalized a deal for them to battle in the chief support spot on the Tim Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman card on March 30th on Amazon Prime Video PPV in Las Vegas, Nevada.
There’s no word yet on the pay-per-view price for the event, but given how stacked the card is, it’s predictable that it’ll be in the mid-$70+ range. This would be a fair price compared to some of the lesser events that fans have paid for.
This is part of a massive triple threat card with WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara defending against his #1 challenger, Michael Zerafa.
‘Pitbull’ Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs) will come up from the 135-lb division, where he is highly ranked, to challenge Rolly (15-1, 13 KOs) for his WBA title at 140.
This will be a voluntary defense for the 29-year-old Rolly, who captured his WBA belt last May but has been slow in defending it due to an injury and wanting to get the biggest & best possible fight.
Pitbull Cruz obviously isn’t the mega-money fight that Rolly wanted. In his first defense, he’d hoped to defend against highly ranked light welterweight contender Ryan Garcia, but the fight failed to materialize.
Mike Coppinger broke the news that Rolly vs. Cruz would be added to the Tszyu vs. Thurman card for March 30th. Boxing fans surprisingly like the idea of Rolly facing the lightweight Pitbull Cruz rather than defending against his WBA 140-lb mandatory Ismael Barroso, so it looks like he’s going to get a free past by them for seemingly cherry-picking from the 135-lb division.
Main Event: Tszyu vs. Thurman
In the main event on the March 30th Amazon Prime Video PPV card, WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs) defends against the ring-rusty former unified welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) in a twelve round fight.
Thurman will be coming off a long two-year layoff to fight for the first time at 154, so one shouldn’t expect too much from the 35-year-old given his inactivity, advanced age, and his debut in a weight class that he’s never fought at.
Using Thurman as Tszyu’s opponent rather than one of the obscure contenders at 154 is being done to entice boxing fans to purchase the card on PBC on Amazon Prime Video PPV. Trying to sell the event would be more problematic if one of the obscure contenders at 154 were used.