WBA welterweight champion Rolando Romero and two-weight satellite champion Teofimo Lopez are finalizing an statement for an August matchup successful Las Vegas, sources with cognition of the negotiations told the Review-Journal connected Monday night.
A venue for the combat has not yet been determined with Aug. 22 arsenic a imaginable date, according to sources.
The matchup marks the archetypal rubric defence of the WBA 147-pound rubric for Romero, a Las Vegas autochthonal who bushed (now WBC welterweight champion) Ryan Garcia a twelvemonth agone successful May to triumph the title. Romero (17-2, 13 knockouts) was antecedently the WBA’s 140-pound champion – claiming the vacant rubric successful 2023 with a triumph implicit Ismael Barroso astatine the Cosmopolitan — besides having a secondary rubric erstwhile campaigning astatine 135 pounds.
Romero mislaid the WBA 140-pound crown successful 2024 with a stoppage nonaccomplishment to Isaac Cruz astatine T-Mobile Arena, besides losing successful 2022 to WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis by method knockout.
Lopez (22-2, 13 knockouts) is simply a erstwhile unified 135-pound champion, winning the IBF rubric from Richard Commey successful 2019 and unifying a twelvemonth aboriginal astatine MGM Grand with a triumph implicit WBO and WBA champion Vasiliy Lomachenko. He mislaid his lightweight crown a twelvemonth aboriginal to George Kambosos, claiming the WBO 140-pound rubric successful 2022 with a triumph implicit Josh Taylor.
He mislaid that rubric successful January to pound-for-pound stalwart Shakur Stevenson and the combat with Romero marks Lopez’s 147-pound debut. Three-weight satellite champion Devin Haney holds the WBO’s 147-pound crown portion Lewis Crocker has the IBF title.
Contact Sam Gordon astatine sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon connected X.
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