Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando "Rolly" Romero Live Winners and Losers, Results

Ryan Garcia's return to prominence certainly had a novel setting.

The polarizing Californian, on the shelf for a year after failing a drug test last spring, was back to main-event status on Friday night atop a fight card that took place outdoors at Times Square in midtown Manhattan.

Now 26 years old, the baby-faced Garcia took on former lightweight title challenger Rolando Romero in a 12-rounder for the WBA's second-tier championship at 147 pounds, a rung below the "super" status held by Jaron Ennis.

Garcia's most recent foe, Devin Haney, appeared on the show in the co-main event against fellow former 140-pound champ Jose Carlos Ramirez, and the event's third big fight matched reigning 140-pound claimant Teofimo Lopez against unbeaten contender Arnold Barboza Jr.

The B/R combat team was in place to take in all the action, featuring the first live blow-by-blow call from Jim Lampley in more than six years—and compiled a definitive, real-time list of the show's winners and losers.

A funny thing happened on the way to Ryan Garcia’s Friday night star turn.

Among several modern fighters claiming “Face of Boxing” status, the Oscar De La Hoya protégé rolled to the ring in a Batmobile and was expected to bring heat to what had been an unseasonably chilly night in terms of entertainment value.

Then he hit the deck. And upon rising, he wasn’t nearly the same destructive force.

Garcia recovered quickly after taking a hard left hook from Rolando Romero in Round 2 but was demonstrably more cautious in its aftermath, eschewing a hell-bent-for-leather quest to land his own left hook for a safer, jab-centric approach that limited damage.

It also limited his chance of winning, which he ultimately did not, instead dropping a shocking but well-deserved unanimous decision to Romero after 12 decidedly non-violent rounds.

Statistically, it was the third-lowest punch output between fighters in a 12-rounder.

“He caught me early, no excuses. Hats off to Rolly,” Garcia said. “(The year layoff) took a lot of my body, both physically and mentally.”

It’s a certainty in boxing.

Merely having the voice of Jim Lampley gives an event more heft.

So, it’s the sport, and, in this case, it's pay-per-view buyers on DAZN that began winning immediately on Friday evening when the 76-year-old International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee sat ringside with a headset and microphone for the first time in 2,337 days.

His running mates doing analysis—ex-two-division champion Antonio Tarver and “Ring Insider” Mike Coppinger—weren’t exactly Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward, but the mere presence of the longtime HBO mic man was enough to warrant full attention.

“It is absolutely endemic to my nature to be in some position where I can tell stories, and the place where I most succeeded in that regard, I believe, was as a ringside blow-by-blow commentator in all those years that I worked for HBO," Lampley told Bleacher Report.

"So, to have a chance to go back to doing that at what amounts to the upper tier of the sport is a tremendous blessing to me."

Make no mistake. Devin Haney won his fight. By a pretty good margin.

He was faster and sharper than catchweight rival Jose Carlos Ramirez and never seemed in any real competitive danger across 12 rounds.

But if he was looking to impress anyone, he failed by just as much.

The former two-division champ was in constant motion, rarely sat down on his shots and seemed overly concerned with nearly everything coming back in his direction.

The broadcast crew, led by Lampley, openly suggested it was gun shyness related to the 2024 debacle with Ryan Garcia in which he was knocked down in rounds 7, 10 and 11.

“I don’t want to sound like a broken record and a whole year has gone by,” Lampley said, “but this looks like a hangover from the Ryan Garcia fight. It’s not the star-level fight that Devin Haney was supposed to be producing at this point in his career.

“Round after round of the same thing, not a moment of drama. If ever a fight between two high-quality fighters was capable of inducing a snooze or a nap in Times Square, this was it.”

The winner and still boxing’s biggest enigma: Teofimo Lopez.

The New York-bred 140-pounder veers maddeningly from magnificent to mediocre from one fight to the next and he was far closer to the former in spots against Arnold Barbosa Jr., using superior speed and craft to earn a one-sided decision to retain his WBO world title.

Barbosa arrived at 32-0 and was a popular pick among the would-be experts against Lopez, who was making the third defense of his title but hadn’t consistently reached the levels he’d attained in past victories against Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor.

Still, the “Takeover” was in charge more often against a taller, longer foe, both initiating exchanges and landing counters while bamboozling his foe with footwork and quickness.

He threw 137 more punches and landed 56 more while winning eight of 12 rounds on two scorecards and 10 of 12 on a third. He still pretty good on the mic, too, as he showed with a creative callout of welterweight champ Jaron “Boots” Ennis.

“I feel great. I feel reborn,” Lopez said. “I’m Dora the Explorer and I’m looking for Boots.”

Beating a guy with one win in four fights is hardly a guarantee of stardom for a guy making his professional debut, but Japanese newbie Reito Tsutsumi didn’t look like a newbie.

He’s been compared to the likes of pound-for-pound superstar Naoya Inoue in his homeland and he didn’t seem totally out of his element on a pay-per-view card in a unique setting.

Opponent Levale Whittington acquitted himself well enough, but Tsutsumi managed to consistently close distance, work effectively inside, and show advanced punch placement often enough over six rounds to both warrant and capture a unanimous decision.

The junior lightweights combined for 601 punches thrown and 170 punches landed before two judges gave Tsutsumi all six rounds and the third awarded him four of six.

“Nothing should dim the star luster of Tsutsumi, who showed all his skills,” Lampley said. “And an impressive competitive performance from the chosen opponent, Whittington.”

The concept sounded amazing.

Its reality, however, was lacking just a bit.

Turns out that only invited guests were inside the fence in Times Square, leaving those without such credentials on the outside looking in, rather than the open-air environment that was imagined—if not promised—when the show’s venue was announced.

Social media posts about the setting began popping up within moments of the opening bell of the opening fight, which matched a New York City police officer and a New York City firefighter in a three-rounder.

For those keeping track, firefighter James Gennari earned a unanimous decision.

Main Card

Rolly Romero def. Ryan Garcia by unanimous decision (115-112, 115-112, 118-109)

Devin Haney def. Jose Carlos Ramirez by unanimous decision (119-109, 119-109, 118-110)

Teofimo Lopez def. Arnold Barboza Jr. by unanimous decision (116-112, 116-112, 118-110)

Reito Tsutsumi def. Levale Whittington by unanimous decision (60-54, 60-54, 58-56)

James Gennari def. Joel Allen by unanimous decision