BoxRec

Apologies if someone somewhere wanted to not know the result until they saw it, but anyway bit of a shock last night as the previously unbeaten Melero (31-0 coming in,) EBU lightweight champion, was KO'd in the third by Yuri Romanov. Melero was "in clear control when he was hit with a good punch."

The result in itself aside, I for one think of Earl in relation to this. Earl was actually down to face Melero at one point, before the WBU route was taken. Now, I'm not saying Earl would have come away with such a result had he faced Melero, but, any chance you think a sudden u-turn might take place and we see Romanov-Earl II for the European title?

It looks to me that Romanov has a pretty poor backing - he may get a slot in Russia or something, but otherwise I think he will have to continue travelling around Europe being the "underdog," despite now being champion.

It could be that Melero gets a rematch. Could also be that Romanov would make his first defense against EBU #1, and probably soon to be mandatory, the Pole Matt Zegan (who just lost an IBF eliminator to Nate Campbell.)

OR - Earl is already out of the EBU rankings courtesy of the WBU title, but a note to ebu HQ saying he's relinquished the trinket may get him back in sharpish. Anyone think this could happen?

i saw this on fightnews and thought of earl straight away.

romanov is a decent fighter i think and was just rusty as hell against earl. if he can get busy he could break into the world top 10 one day.

World Lightweight Ratings

Name Age Points Debut W-L-D » Last 6 »

1 Juan Diaz 23 1,026 2000 31-0-0

2 Joel Casamayor 35 929 1996 34-3-1

3 Julio Diaz 26 838 1999 33-3-0

4 Aldo Nazareno Rios 32 762 1995 42-4-0

5 Jorge Rodrigo Barrios 30 728 1996 46-3-1

6 Zahir Raheem 30 710 1996 27-2-0

7 Nate Campbell 34 576 2000 29-5-1

8 Fernando Angulo 25 515 1999 18-4-0

9 Yuri Romanov 24 493 2002 18-2-0

10 David Diaz 30 490 1996 32-1-1

Yuri is good enough to pick up a 'world title' imo if he gets the right breaks, but in many ways he's too good for his own good and unless he gets a good backer he'll find it hard to get the big fights.... if he was Irish or American people would be knocking eachother out to sign him!...

Yeah, I didn't see this as a shock. Yuri was so rusty vs Earl (who did fight a tremendous fight) and I still had it a draw - although looking at the fight as a whole I did think the right man won.

Expected Yuri to win this fight and really do expect Yuri to beat Earl in a rematch.

I think Romanov would beat Earl in a rematch. They should definitely go for the European title though.

Yeah, I've always been a big fan of Yuri, he was just sooo rusty when he boxed Earl.

If it happens again, Earl gets schooled.