Eddie Hearn, who co-promotes Catterall, believes the WBA will move to enforce the matchup, even if there remains uncertainty over Romero’s immediate plans.
“It’s going to be ordered, but it’s just whether Rolly has a fight in between,” Hearn said during an interview on the Mr. Versace podcast.
Hearn also made it clear that Matchroom intends to push for the mandatory title fight to happen.
“The order is upon him to fight Jack Catterall, and we’ll be pushing to make that happen,” Hearn said.
Romero has been linked to bigger-money opportunities involving the likes of Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia, creating uncertainty over whether he will move directly into a defense against Catterall.
Hearn acknowledged that Catterall represents a difficult assignment for any champion at welterweight.
“Jack Catterall is really good,” Hearn said. “If you’re Rolly, you don’t really want to risk it all against Jack Catterall. You want to take a bigger money fight with probably the same risk.”
Catterall earned his place as Romero’s mandatory challenger by defeating Shakhram Giyasov to capture the WBA title. Romero, meanwhile, has already returned to training as attention shifts toward whether the sanctioning body will move forward with the expected order for the two to meet.
