Rolly Romero makes a successful comeback with a 10-round decision over Manuel Jaimes

It was something. When you have a mouthy reputation and are humiliated by going 1-2 over your last three fights, you take any crumbs you can grab.

That’s what faced Rolando Romero, who many thought his career was on life support after getting crushed for the second time in his career, when he was stopped in March by Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz in eight rounds.

So, the first of many small steps back came Saturday night for “Rolly,” when he took on Manuel Jaimes in a 10-round junior welterweight bout on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga PBC on Prime pay-per-view card opened before a sellout crowd of 20,312 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Romero came away with a fairly dominant 10-round, unanimous junior welterweight decision over Jaimes, with agreed scores of 99-91 across the board from judges Tim Cheatham, Patricia Morse Jarman and Steve Weisfeld.

“I needed a tough 10-round fight against someone who was hungry and that’s what I got tonight,” Romero said. “I did a lot of things tonight that I should have done in my earlier fights.

“Jaimes came forward a lot, but I controlled the pace. The fight went the way I wanted it to. In the later rounds I started to come forward more and land more body shots.

“Hopefully I’ll fight for a title next. I have my eye on any of the champions.”

Neither fighter was willing to commit early. In fact, Romero landed a mere three punches in the first round, and Jaimes landed two. Of the 10 rounds, Jaimes landed double-digit punches in just two, the eighth and ninth rounds. Romero didn’t fare much better, though he did open up as the fight unfolded and landed double figures in the final six rounds.

During the build-up to the fight, Romero (16-2, 13 knockouts) was uncharacteristically reserved. He was also very reserved during the fight, staying within a box frame of jabs and staying in a defensive shell, allowing Jaimes to come forward.

It was a rather uneventful production.

Romero would land a two-, three-punch combination and keep it safe, unwilling to take any chances.

Jaimes (16-2-1, 11 KOs) tried to lure Romero into his type of fight, but to no avail.

CompuBox stats revealed Romero landed 112 (40 body)/403 (27.8%) while Jaimes got 89 (14)/361 (24.7%) points for attempts, though the talent disparity was stark.

Jaimes predictably thought he did better than the judges saw.

“The judges saw what they saw,” he said. “I will have to watch the tape to be able to score it myself. I could have been more active, it would have helped me land more. It was great to be in this position, it’s the kind of fight I’ve always wanted to be in. I’m going back to work and figuring out what’s next.”