The other weekend, Rolando Romero had a slow start against Ismael Barroso in the WBA Super Lightweight Championship. But in the end, he secured the world title through a controversial ninth-round stoppage.
The event took place at The Chelsea Theater at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and was broadcast live on Showtime. Barroso, the 40-year-old mandatory challenger from Venezuela, aimed to become the oldest current titlist in the sport and the lightest at 140 pounds. This was his second opportunity at a world title. Barroso became eligible for the vacant WBA title after the previous titleholder, Alberto Puello, tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene last month. Romero, a Las Vegas native ranked fifth, didn't have a challenger until Barroso stepped in.
At the beginning of the fight, Barroso took the role of the aggressor, while Romero adjusted to his unconventional style and tried to gauge distance. However, the first two rounds were uneventful except for a slip when both fighters tangled legs in the second round. In the third round, Barroso connected with a left hook that sent Romero into the ropes and was ruled a knockdown as the round ended. Romero managed to continue after receiving the ten count from referee Tony Weeks.
Romero recovered in the fourth round when he landed a right hand that seemed to slow down Barroso. The crowd, favoring the local fighter Romero, grew restless. Nevertheless, Barroso
persisted with his aggressive approach, which turned the fight into a cautious affair. As the eighth round came to a close, the hometown crowd became disappointed with the lack of action.
The ninth round shifted the fight as Barroso was knocked down early after being caught with a right hand. Romero increased his pace, and as the round ended, referee Weeks intervened and stopped the fight, despite a flurry of punches from Romero that were not landing. Even Romero acknowledged after the battle that Barroso should have been allowed to continue. Barroso had been leading on the scorecards until the unexpected stoppage.
The controversial stoppage decision by referee Tony Weeks was met with extreme backlash from boxing fans. Many are crying out that the match was rigged.
Throughout the bout and when the referee stopped the fight and announced Rolly Romero as the winner, one can clearly see the prevalence of online gambling brands adorning the boxing ring. Betting is in an important part of sports and has become even more prevalent as many states in the US have legalized the activity. However, betting has its downsides. Boxing has a troubled past, with many match-fixing incidents. For this reason, the gambling industry often gets a bad rep in boxing circles.
However, the activity of fixed matches isn’t exclusive to boxing. Match fixing is prevalent in all sports and remains costly for online gambling operators. Fixed matches are relatively common in boxing and martial arts because only two individuals are involved in a fight. Effectively, it is easier to rig a boxing match than a college basketball game consisting of 15 players on each roster.
Gambling operators that provide legal sports betting in the US all form a part of a central fraud detection system. This system collects data from all legal bookmakers in the United States, and hundreds of other websites worldwide. Betting patterns are analysed to discover fixed matches. The system looks for unusual patterns both before the match starts and during the fights during the in-play betting phase. When a match is ongoing, the monitoring continues and traces betting patterns based on the pre-match odds to discover unusual activity.
This was not the first nor the last time a boxing match was accused of being rigged. Boxing is on the verge of being dropped from the Olympic program following allegations of corruption and match-fixing during the London Olympics in 2016. It ran the risk of being removed ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and again ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. It’s unlikely that boxing will be removed for the 2024 edition. However, there are already discussions about removing boxing from the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Currently, no foul play has been found by bookmakers in relation to the WBA Super Lightweight Championship fight between Romero and Barroso. It is not uncommon that match-fixing reports take up to several days to report, as the teams working with fraud detection systems need time to analyse all the data and compare it to the actual events of the fight.
