You’d think former lightweight boxing champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero would be flying high after a career-best performance against Ryan Garcia in 2025, but the opposite is true.

Now sitting outside the ring for well over a year, Romero’s career remains rather nebulous, with his championship status hanging in the balance.

Speaking with Fighters Weekly’s Shaun Brown, on behalf of Betinia, Romero opened up about some potential superfights that never came to fruition. ‘Rolly’ already spoke about struggles with mental health during his hiatus from boxing, and how religion pulled him out of a slump.

“… It’s really hard because I lost myself and two people I care for dearly in the process. But God has a funny way of redeeming things because everything done came back to me. . . . So all that time I spent away from boxing, as much as I kept trying to make the fights happen, there’s no way I could have spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally been able to fight.

“There’s no possible way. . . . Five lucrative fights fell out.”

‘They’re all scared,’ Romero talks about five super fights that fell through despite lucrative offers

So what would you say has been the one specific reason why these fights haven’t happened?

“They’re all scared,” Romero remarked. “We offer them all great deals, great splits, everything. And they even acknowledge and say that but they don’t want to fight. They get scared. They don’t want to be champion.

“The one dude that did out of all them that did fight me… yeah. Wants nothing to do with me. Why is that? Cuz he knows that he can’t beat me, and he’s the one that beat the other and then the other one just sucks. . . . And the other one was begging for too much money and is a grandpa.

“[…] They’re scared of me. I am the most avoided fighter in boxing.”

We’re talking about Ryan Garcia, Conor Benn, Devin Haney. Who else?

“Ayo,” Romero confirmed. “Yeah [that’s four, not five], but the other one is undisclosed.”

‘I think Ryan smokes him,’ Romero offers a prediction for Garcia vs. Benn

Speaking of Ryan Garcia, do you think he’ll beat Conor Benn in September?

“[…] I think Ryan smokes him,” Romero declared. “We got the battle of the Ostarine versus the eggs.” Referring to Garcia and Benn’s respective cheating scandals.

I’ve been interviewing fighters for 20 years, and I’ve heard a lot of retirement calls from fighters and speeches, and they always come back. . . .

“You want my retirement speech?” Romero interjected. “Everybody here just enjoy me while I’m here. I’m not here for long. I’m just passing by, but learn from me now because I will not be around forever.

“I’m not a gambling man,” Romero replied when Shaun said he’d bet on a Romero return.

View the full interview on the Fighters Weekly YouTube channel.

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