By Norm Frauenheim
LAS VEGAS — If silence speaks volumes, Rolly Romero said a lot Friday.
He said nothing.
In what proved to be the deafening final punctuation point to a ceremonial weigh-in, Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) had only silence as an answer to questions from DAZN’s Chris Mannix the day before opening bell to a defense of his welterweight title against Teofimo Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) in pay-per-view bout at T-Mobile Center.
It was an awkward moment — a rare one too– in a business that is nothing if not noisy. It also was newsworthy on a day when both fighters made weight in the morning at the official weigh-in at the Park MGM, just across the street from T-Mobile.. Lopez was at 147 pounds, the welterweight limit. Romero was at 146.6, slightly lighter perhaps because he shed all the verbiage.
There was no explanation, of course, because Romero would have had to speak. Instead, he waved his title belt above his head and in Lopez’ face as he stepped away from an extended stare-down in the ritual face-off after the weights were announced.
There were lots of questions, most of them raised during a contentious news conference Thursday. That’s when Lopez dismissed Romero as if he was nothing more than a mere sparring partner. Romero has been that, too.
Yet in this fight, Lopez suggested he was only a steppingstone in Lopez’ move up to welterweight in his first fight in a rich new deal with DAZN. He reminded Lopez that he was elevated from mandatory challenger to the World Boxing Association’s real champion in a procedural move after his stunning upset of Ryan Garcia. Interim was just another insult
Nobody, Lopez suggested, was going to get in the way of his second chance at fulfilling the promise that defines his nickname, The Takeover.
Romero’s silence seemed to say:
Prove it
