Tim Bradley has questioned Rolando Romero’s fighter-trainer relationship with Ismael Salas following his majority decision defeat to Teofimo Lopez this past weekend.
The 30-year-old made a first defence of his WBA world title at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, only to be convincingly outboxed by welterweight debutant Lopez.
While the scorecards would suggest otherwise, many felt ‘The Takeover’ won a clear decision by outlanding, and largely outclassing, his low-volume opponent.
The key moment of success for ‘Rolly’ came in round five, when he hurt Lopez with an overhand right but was unable to get his man out of there, or in fact score a knockdown.
As a result, Lopez became a three-division world champion while Romero suffered his first defeat since getting stopped in eight rounds by Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.
That setback came in 2024, after the American had moved up to 140lbs in the wake of his sixth-round stoppage loss to Gervonta Davis around two years earlier.
Back then, Romero was working with head coach Cromwell ‘Bullet’ Gordon but is now trained by Salas, who has been widely credited for improving Rolly’s technical ability and defensive skills.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, though, Hall of Famer Bradley made the argument that Romero no longer has faith in his punch resistance.
“Rolly is a defective fighter. I’ve told y’all already – he’s not skilled; he’s not that good. All he does is have power.
“You think you’re gonna outbox Teofimo Lopez? You think you literally, clearly won the fight? Get the hell out of here, Rolly.
“Look at how Rolly used to be when he was with Bullet. He was aggressive; he was coming forward; he was a damn dog.
“Then he got his ass knocked out by Gervonta Davis. [Then] he got his ass knocked out by Pitbull Cruz. He been fighting on skates ever since. He don’t believe in this [his chin].”
While Salas oversaw a unanimous decision victory over Ryan Garcia in May 2025, it did seem that Romero was struggling to follow instructions from his trainer against Lopez.
