Danny Roman To Defend WBA Super Bantamweight Title In February
Danny Roman fought in Japan for the first time in his career back in September and will now fight there again in February as the WBA super bantamweight champion.
Roman will defend his WBA title for the first time in his career when he travels back to Japan on February 28 to face top Japanese boxer Ryo Matsumoto. The fight will take place at Korakuen Hall, site of Roman’s WBA title win over Shun Kubo on September 3.
Alex Camponovo, the general manager and matchmaker for Thompson Boxing told BoxingScene.com that the plan is for Roman to defend his title and hopefully make a defense in the United States on television.
“If the television executives are interested in doing some business with us and Danny Roman, of course. So if the market here in America is not ready and open for him, we’ll go wherever we have to go,” Camponovo said.
Matsumoto, a former OPBF super flyweight champion, has fought his entire pro career in Japan, mostly at Korakuen Hall. Matsumoto has only lost once in his pro career and won his last four fights by TKO, two of which were against longtime veterans Jason Butar Butar and Hendrik Barongsay.
Roman started the year as a highly-regarded prospect, picking up a win on Showtime’s ShoBox: The Next Generation series when he beat Adam Lopez. Roman holds the WBA “regular” title but with “super” Guillermo Rigondeaux taking a fight against Vasyl Lomachenko at super featherweight, there is a chance Rigondeaux is stripped of the title and Roman either gets elevated to “super” champion or his status as WBA “regular” champion simply turns over to just WBA champion.
