Rolly Romero opens up on ‘dark place’ before Ryan Garcia upset, says boxing ‘almost tore me apart’

Rolando “Rolly” Romero cringes at the thought. The 30-year-old WBA welterweight world champion won his belt when he did something many thought he was incapable of, upsetting Ryan Garcia in May 2025. Romero has not fought since then, and was waiting, and waiting, and waiting for a chance to defend the WBA title.

Now, he finds himself “stuck,” like anyone would feel when tasked with fighting a friend, as Romero is with former two-division champion Teofimo Lopez Jr. The pair of eccentric boxing personalities will clash Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on a PBC pay-per-view broadcast (8 p.m. ET).

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Only the colorful banter that usually engulfs one of their fights will be missing this time.

“Everyone else ducked me, so now I’m stuck fighting my friend,” Romero said in an exclusive interview with Uncrowned. “Trust me, I didn’t want to fight my friend. It was not on my list, but it is something that I have to do. We do have a history though.”

They do.

Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) even has it down to the specific dates he and Lopez sparred.

The first time they met was May 23, 2015, at a boxing party. The first time they sparred was February 18, 2016, Romero recalled, when the pair were in their early 20s. Romero was getting Lopez ready for the 2016 Olympics. Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) and his father and trainer, Teofimo Lopez Sr., traveled to Las Vegas, to the gym where Romero worked out, and the two went at it.

Romero said that they both had their moments. It was that way in all their sessions, he said — a little of Lopez being up, followed by Romero coming back at him.

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“I remember what attracted me to Teo, he was his usual self, and he said something out of pocket that I won’t repeat here, but it was really funny and it was offbeat, but not with the intention of hurting anyone,” Romero said. “I was able to relate to that, because to a degree, that is me. I mean everything pretty much what I say. If I call someone ‘ugly,’ it means they’re ugly.”

The second time they sparred was in October 2016, the third time in June 2017 and the last time was in October 2017.

“I love Teo, but once this fight was made, I decided to go [for it], because everyone else has been ducking me,” Romero said. “This is going to be a hell of a fight, but every time I fight, it is a hell of a fight. I wanted to fight after beating Garcia. It wasn’t injuries [keeping me out], it wasn’t politics. It was everyone ducking me. Garcia ducked me for the rematch. Conor Benn ducked me. [Manny] Pacquiao ducked me. They all ducked me. It’s why I didn’t get into the ring sooner, although the time off benefitted me.”

At that, Romero stepped back and brought up a resonating moment of his career. It was actually minutes before he stepped into the ring with Garcia, who was one of the headliners on Turki Alalshikh’s ambitious Times Square fight card.

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Romero, a major underdog at +1000 odds on some sportsbooks, stole the show that night, knocking down Garcia with a left hook in the second round. Romero sat on that momentum and rode out a unanimous victory. Yet around that same time, he also found himself feeling “stuck” again, leading into the signature victory of his career.

“I was in a bad place for a time there,” he admitted. “I started doing some things I thought I would never do. I have a lot from my childhood that I carry with me, but if you notice, when I got in that classic car in Times Square, heading a few feet over to fight [Garcia], if you notice my eyes, I was gone, lost. … I was in a dark place. It’s not that I did not like myself, but I had to change.

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“I had to find the right way to live my life, because I was living my life like a wild animal. I’m not saying I was doing drugs or cocaine, but I had no right to punch every random person in the face just because I liked doing it. It’s not a good way to live. It’s just an analogy — I didn’t actually do that. But you have to live your life with integrity, and I wasn’t living like that.

“Look back at me in that car just before the Garcia fight. No one knows this, but I never beat Ryan Garcia. If it was me, I would have knocked Ryan Garcia out cold that night. I take no part in what happened in that fight. It had nothing to do with me. I know for a fact it was not me.”

Romero said it was instead “God” who imbued him with a wisdom he felt before the Garcia fight. He stressed he felt possessed by God before he stepped into the ring.

“When they had us drive to the ring in these cars, God’s voice was echoing so loudly in my head that I couldn’t hear anyone, it was like I wasn’t there,” Romero recalled. “I didn’t know where I was, or what I was about to do. It’s why I had that blank stare on my face driving to the ring. I wasn’t there. It was like getting hit by a thunderbolt and I didn’t burn. I looked off in the car because I heard God’s voice.”

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It’s “God’s voice” that Romero hopes will guide him again against Lopez. He was giving away backpacks to his former elementary school when he spoke to Uncrowned. It brought back memories of him getting in constant trouble in school. He could not clearly speak until he was 12.

“It’s why I genuinely believe that I’m on some kind of spectrum,” he said. “I suppose it’s why I can remember specific dates and why I fight. This fight is going to be fun. I know Teo is a good dancer, and I think people are starting to realize that I am a lot smarter than they realize.

“Anything can happen in this fight, and I can’t really say what I am going to do and what [Lopez] is going to do. I am settled in my life. Boxing can tear you apart. I know, it almost tore me apart. It’s taken awhile, but I have found contentment. I know God is with me no matter what. God will deliver me to where I have to go. It’s based on faith and trust. When I fought [Gervonta] ‘Tank’ Davis, I wasn’t ready for that fame or money. When I heard God’s true voice [before the Garcia fight], that truly changed me.”

And he won.