Tim Bradley anticipates a one-sided beatdown when Rolando Romero defends his WBA title against Teofimo Lopez this weekend.
The pair will collide at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, with ‘Rolly’ making a first defence of his world title after being elevated from ‘regular’ to full welterweight champion.
This upgrade followed his last outing, against Ryan Garcia, who he dropped and unanimously outpointed in their May 2025 encounter.
Many considered this to be a sizable upset but, from Bradley’s perspective, Garcia and Lopez are worlds apart when it comes to pure boxing skills.
Lopez did, after all, manage to secure career-defining wins over Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor, whereas Garcia’s best victory is arguably his recent title-winning effort against Mario Barrios.
‘The Takeover’ has therefore been able to prove his talent at the highest level, albeit with a series of less inspiring performances sprinkled in between.
A 2021 lightweight clash with George Kambosos Jr, for instance, saw him suffer a first-round knockdown before losing his titles via a split decision.
But still, Hall of Famer Bradley has said on his YouTube channel that the 29-year-old should possess the durability and superior ring IQ to overcome Romero’s power.
“This ain’t even gonna be close. This is a damn mismatch. Everybody riding on Rolly Romero because he beat Ryan Garcia, [but] Ryan Garcia ain’t got the skills that Teofimo Lopez got.
“Teofimo Lopez [has been] knocked down one time in his whole career [against Kambosos]. [He has] natural [fighting] instincts, fast-twitch muscles, speed, power, counter-punching ability … He about to smoke Rolly Romero. [Romero has] got a puncher’s chance – that’s it.”
Lopez’s only other defeat came in January, when he lost his WBO super-lightweight title via a wide unanimous decision against Shakur Stevenson.
