Notebook: Former unified jr. featherweight titlist Daniel Roman announces retirement

Jarrell Miller vs. Lucas Browne agreed to fight; H. Garcia seeks 'Tank' fight; Quick hits; Show and tell

Aug 30, 2022

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Almost three months since losing his last fight, former unified junior featherweight titlist Daniel Roman announced his retirement on Monday night.

“I am officially announcing my retirement from boxing,” Roman posted to Twitter. “Thank you to my team, promoters, sponsors, media outlets and fans all around the world for your love and support these last 12 years. All glory to God.”

In his final bout, Roman challenged unified junior featherweight titlist Stephen Fulton on Showtime on June 4 in Minneapolis and lost a near-shutout decision via scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 119-109.

Roman turned pro in October 2010, rose from the Southern California club show circuit — mainly on cards put on by Thompson Boxing, his longtime promoter — and overcame two early decision losses to go on to unify a pair of 122-pound world titles and face some of the best in the division.

Roman’s big break came in September 2017 when he landed a shot at WBA titlist Shun Kubo and traveled to Japan, where notched an upset to win the title by ninth-round knockout in a dominating performance.

Roman (29-4-1, 10 KOs), 32, of Los Angeles, would go on to make four successful defenses, including returning to Japan for his first defense in a one-sided decision win over Ryo Matsumoto. He then outpointed Moises Flores, stopped Gavin McDonnell in the 10th round of his first fight with co-promoter Matchroom Boxing and reached the height of his career when he claimed a majority decision over TJ Doheny in an action-packed fight to unify the WBA and IBF belts in April 2019.

Roman lost the belts in his next fight by disputed split decision to Murodjon Akhmadaliev in January 2020 and was disappointed he could not secure a rematch.

Roman then parted ways with Matchroom Boxing and began working with Premier Boxing Champions and won two decisions in a row against former bantamweight titlist Juan Carlos Payano and Ricardo Espinoza. Those wins set him up for the shot at Fulton, who will be his final foe barring a comeback.

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Miller-Browne in November

Heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (25-0-1, 20 KOs), 34, of Brooklyn, New York, is slated for the second fight of his comeback against Ebenezer Tetteh (20-1, 17 KOs), 34, of Ghana, in a 10-rounder that will headline a card on Oct. 3 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, promoter Greg Cohen told Fight Freaks Unite.

Tete’s only loss came by first-round knockout to Daniel Dubois in September 2019. Tete won his only fight since.

A Miller win with no injuries would propel him into a November fight with Lucas Browne (31-3, 27 KOs), 43, of Australia. Cohen and promoter Lou DiBella, who holds an option on Browne’s next fight based on his first-round knockout of June Fa in June, said they have a deal in place for the bout.

Miller is coming off a fourth-round knockout of Derek Cardenas on July 23 in his second win in a row against a low-level opponent since returning to the ring in June as he shakes off the rust and tries to get back into fighting shape after being idle since November 2018.

Miller was out of action because of several positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs that caused multiple bouts to be canceled (including a multi-million dollar shot at then-unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua in December 2019) and a suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

He returned for a unanimous decision over Argentina’s Ariel Esteban Bracamonte on June 23 on the WBA KO Drugs Festival card in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The date and site for Miller against Browne, who has his own sorted history with PEDs, is not settled. Cohen said it would either headline a card on Nov. 13 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates or take place on Nov. 26 at The O2 in London on card secondary heavyweight titlist Dubois is due to headline, although that card has not yet been formally announced.

H. Garcia calls out Tank

Newly crowned WBA junior lightweight titlist Hector Luis Garcia, who has had a breakout year, is looking for even bigger fights, namely against secondary lightweight titlist Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs), 30, a 2016 Olympian from the Dominican Republic, burst on the scene in February with a dominating 12-round decision over Chris Colbert in a major upset to take Colbert’s position as mandatory challenger.

Garcia got that title shot against Roger Gutierrez on Aug. 20 on the Omar Figueroa Jr.-Sergey Lipinets Showtime undercard at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, and won a clear decision, 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111, although Gutierrez mounted a late rally by winning the final three rounds on two of the scorecards.

Now, Garcia is aiming to face bigger names.

“I wanted to keep aiming for the top and after beating Colbert and Gutierrez I want the biggest challenge out there, ‘Tank’ Davis,” Garcia said. “I don't care what weight we fight at. I will move up to 135 to fight for his title or we can meet at 130 and fight for my title and his title and make it an even bigger fight.”

Garcia downplayed talk of Davis facing lightweight star Ryan Garcia (no relation).

“Ryan Garcia is soft as butter. He couldn’t walk down the street in my neighborhood in the Dominican Republic,” Hector Garcia said. “’Tank,’ you should want to fight a real man who is like yourself, a street dog. I’m right here. Come see the real Garcia, who’s a real man and not just some TikTok star.

“Tank is a dangerous fighter but I welcome the challenge. I have a good frame for 130 pounds and I think I will be just as good at 135. I want to fight the best. I have beaten two of the top guys at 130 now I want the big names at 135.”

Quick hits

The lightweight fight between contenders Joseph “JoJo” Diaz Jr. (32-2-1, 15 KOs), 29, a former junior lightweight titlist from South El Monte, California, and William Zepeda (26-0, 23 KOs), 26, of Mexico, who were initially scheduled to headline a Golden Boy card on Nov. 5 at a site to be determined, has been moved to Nov. 19, DAZN announced. There was no specific reason given for the switch but it likely is because after Diaz-Zepeda was given Nov. 5, the fight between light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol and mandatory challenger Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez was finalized for the same day with a site in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates set, and DAZN likely did not want two notable cards on the same day.

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Show and tell

Timothy Bradley Jr. twice unified junior welterweight titles, was a two-time welterweight titlist. In one of his welterweight defenses, Bradley outslugged Ruslan Provodnikov in the absolutely instant-classic 2013 fight of the year. During his 12-year career (2004 to 2016) Bradley also defeated Juan Manuel Marquez, Brandon Rios, Jessie Vargas (undefeated), Joel Casamayor, Devon Alexander (undefeated), Lamont Peterson (undefeated), Kendall Holt, Junior Witter (on the road in England) and Miguel Vasquez. There was also a massively controversial win over Manny Pacquiao. Bradley retired 33-2-1 with his only official losses coming by decision to Pacquiao in their second and third fights. I have long campaigned for Bradley to be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame and have voted for him regularly since he began appearing on the ballot. He deserves it and has the resume to back it up. These days he is the fine ringside analyst for the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN cards.

On Monday (Aug. 29), Bradley turned 39. Here is his rookie card in my collection. It was part of a four-card panel (for which I wrote the backs) inside the SP Boxing-produced program for Bradley’s ninth-round knockout of Brandon Rios to retain the WBO welterweight title in what would be his final victory in 2015. The panel also includes the rookie card of Vasiliy Lomachenko, who appeared on the undercard.