Paying Respect To Daniel Roman’s Boxing Career
On Monday, Daniel Roman, the famed world champion, who spent most of his pro career with Thompson Boxing officially announced his retirement via Instagram. The news was released via Roman’s Twitter account.
Roman is a true throwback fighter in the sense as he got a draw in his second fight, and lost his fourth fight, which by most insiders standards would mean he was destined to be an opponent. Roman would lose a close fight to Juan Reyes – but after that loss Roman was a different fighter.
Roman would spend most of his career fighting at the DoubleTree in Ontario, California, and winning a North American super bantamweight world title in the process.
In 2017, Roman hit the road. Roman would beat Adam Lopez in Atlantic City, this win would set him up to go to Japan to fight for the world title. After defeating Shun Kubo, Roman would go back to Japan to face Ryo Matsumoto in his very next bout, and defeat him.
His final run on DAZN saw him treated as a star as he had a modern classic with TJ Doheny, as well Murodjon Akhmadaliev, but was rather abruptly cut not long after the fight.
Roman’s last three fights were with Premier Boxing Champions, ending with a fight against Stephen Fulton Jr., who outpointed him earlier this year.
Roman’s Legacy: A hard worker, who came up through the Maywood Boxing Gym from the ground up. Known for his 10-12 round sparring session that people were eager to see, Roman spent a good chunk of his career living with his family at times providing for his dream of being a pro boxer. Roman’s big reoccurrence – sacrifice.
Roman didn’t have an easy road, and might not have had the best God-given gifts, but he made each and every one of his talents go the furthest. Not unlike pro golfer, J.T. Poston, Roman got every single he could’ve out of his career, and was a true professional and one of the best L.A. fighters of his era. Roman also went on the journey with Eddie Gonzales, the man who guided him through it all.
Roman would win the WBA and IBF super bantamweight title holding both at the same time, making four defenses of the WBA title as well.
01) TJ Doheny
One of the best fights DAZN ever broadcast, and the fight that made Daniel Roman a unified world champion as he held the WBA super bantamweight and IBF super bantamweight world titles after the fight. A rock’em, sock’em affair that took place in Roman’s stomping grounds of Los Angeles, California.
Not just did Roman win, but he stopped a world champion.
If you want one fight this is the one to see as this was the Apex Mountain of Roman’s career.
02) Shun Kubo
Traveling overseas to win his first world title, Roman went over seemingly as a b-side world title challenger and took the title. Roman did what all the great matchmakers ask of fighters and went to an opponent’s home country, and beat him easily.
The mental toughness shown along with his skills of winning on foreign soil showed that Roman truly is a world champion, as he traveled across the world title to win his belt and did it all over again to defend it.
03)Murodjon Akhmadaliev
Daniel Roman was the champion, but it seemed like the promotion was geared around a 7-0, at the time contender, Murojan Akhmadaliev. A fight that is highly debated to this day as many felt Roman came on at the end of the fight and won it. Akhmadaliev got every benefit of the doubt on the cards to defeat the champion, and even still it was a split decision win.
After this fight, Roman would never fight again on DAZN, as the last three fights of his career would be on the PBC brand of programming. It was strange that we never saw a rematch of essential an all-time great type of fight.
04) Adam Lopez
Headlining a stacked ShoBox card, Adam Lopez graduated from a word-of-mouth guy to a world title contender, but utterly dominating Adam Lopez, a 122 lbs fighter from Texas, who was undefeated at the time.
The fight is not readily available on YouTube, but I am sure you can find it on the Showtime app. This fight was signified when Roman got past his early career troubles of getting out of the regional scene.
05) Gavin McDonnell
Roman’s second title defense on American soil was also a homecoming as it was televised on the upstart DAZN at the time and saw him get the superstar treatment he had been waiting for his whole career. The result was Roman absolutely running through McDonnell as a solid regional fighter in the U.K. scene, who just couldn’t handle the aggression of Roman.
A tenth-round stoppage prompted Roman to get a unification bout against TJ Doheny which would define his career and legacy.
