Boxing world champion Rolly Romero slams sparring partner as all hell breaks loose

Footage has emerged of Rolly Romero slamming an unidentified boxer to the canvas for landing an illegal blow in sparring.

After the pair become embroiled in a clinch, Romero’s sparring partner strikes him with his shoulder and follows up with a left hook.

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Incensed by the cheap shots, Romero hip-tosses his adversary to the floor and rains down ground and pound before onlookers break them up.

The sparring partner then turns apologetic as Romero can be heard saying: “Don’t be doing that stuff.”

Romero’s perfectly executed throw is a result of years of practice.

Before turning his hand to boxing, Romero spent much of his youth training and competing in Judo, achieving a brown belt in the Japanese martial art.

It’s unclear when the spar occurred, although the clip initially surfaced on DAZN’s social media to promote Romero’s upcoming clash with Teofimo Lopez.

Romero (17-2) defends his WBA welterweight title against Lopez at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on August 22 in PBC’s debut show on DAZN.

The Sin City native picked up the WBA ‘regular’ strap by beating Ryan Garcia on points in May 2025.

He was subsequently upgraded to full champion two months ago and will now make the first defence of his world title against Lopez.

It comes after a frustrating 14 months on the sidelines watching a rematch with Garcia and bouts with Devin Haney and Conor Benn fall by the wayside.

“I have so much love for Teofimo,” said Romero.

“It’s been a hard time trying to make a fight, but we know that Teofimo is gonna fight anyone.

“So I’m thankful that he stepped up to the plate.”

Lopez (22-2) is coming off a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Shakur Stevenson in January.

He dropped his WBO super lightweight belt in defeat and has now made the move to 147lbs.

Lopez has the opportunity to become a three-weight world champion against Romero after previously unifying three of the four major belts at lightweight with a win over Vasyl Lomachenko in 2020.

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