Referee Tony Weeks Comments On Romero-Barroso Stoppage, Says Age of Barroso Played a Major Factor
In an interview conducted with Michael Woods of NY Fights, Weeks was asked to respond to widespread condemnation for the way he presided over the junior welterweight title bout between Rolando Romero and Ismael Barroso. Weeks infamously stopped the bout during the ninth round because he believed the 40-year-old Barroso was taking unnecessary punishment from Romero, who is 28 and is now the WBA 140-pound titlist.
“What was in my mind was, a 40 year old fighter, in a young man's game,” Tony Weeks told NY Fights. “Any official will tell you, you get a fight, and a fighter is at an advanced age, you're going to look at him a little harder than the other fighter…When I look at a fighter who's up there in age, there's two things I look at: his reaction when he takes his first hit, and his stamina in the later rounds.
“Up until the stoppage, Romero didn't really land flush, he landed flush in that last round. When he landed flush, Barroso went down. It told me right then and there, I don't know if he can take it.”
“Now, looking at it on the replay, of course I don't have at the time the advantage of slow motion replay, five different angles,” Weeks continued. “If I had been in that position I wouldn't have stopped the fight. Point blank I wouldn't have stopped the fight. Barroso was definitely on a short leash, Romero landed, it prompted me to stop the fight. In boxing, all it takes is one punch.”
“But he was hurt, definitely hurt, then I stopped it, there was no resistance to that,” Weeks said. “But again, if I was in a different position, to see punches didn't land, I wouldn't have stopped it at that time. However, a 40 year old man can't take a punch like a 20 year old. That's always going to be at the forefront of a referee's mind.”
“It's easy for someone on the outside (to speak on the decision), but they don't have the responsibility of what happens to that fighter,” Weeks said. “All the responsibility is on the referee. When you have that responsibility, you have a different mentality. And if there has been a fight that affected you (via a tragedy in the ring), that informs you (actions as a referee). I was devastated (from Leavander’s death). I actually wanted to quit. It took me a while, it took a minute.”