Rolando Romero promised something similar will happen Saturday night to what occurred the last time he fought a Dominican opponent with more experience than him.

“It’s gonna be a very brutal knockout, one of the worst knockouts ever seen in this sport,” Romero told BoxingScene.com regarding his 12-round fight against unbeaten Jackson Marinez for the WBA interim lightweight title. “He’s 19-0. I’m 11-0. So, theoretically, he’s a better fighter than me, no? But like I said, they could put in whoever they want with me – I’m gonna perform.”

Las Vegas’ Romero, a top prospect promoted by Floyd Mayweather’s company, knows he’ll have to beat better opponents and harder punchers than Marinez to prove himself as an elite lightweight. This fight still represents an incremental step in his development, an opportunity that the 24-year-old Romero is fully confident he’ll exploit.

Showtime will televise the bout between Romero (11-0, 10 KOs) and Marinez (19-0, 7 KOs) as part of a tripleheader from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

It’ll mark Romero’s first appearance on “Showtime Championship Boxing,” following a first-round knockout of the Dominican Republic’s Juan Carlos Cardones that aired as part of the network’s prospect series, “ShoBox: The New Generation,” on November 1 from Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall in Las Vegas. Romero dropped Cardones (14-2, 9 KOs) twice before their scheduled six-rounder was stopped 2:14 into it.

The hard-hitting Romero, who has knocked out six straight opponents, is certain Marinez won’t last long Saturday night, either.

“He’s just a boxer,” Romero said. “I fought another Dominican boxer on Showtime, on November 1st, and he was bigger than [Marinez]. That lasted one round, so we’re gonna see. I know what’s gonna happen. He knows what’s gonna happen. Robert Garcia [Marinez’s trainer] knows what’s gonna happen. My trainer, my team knows what’s gonna happen. We all know what’s gonna happen. So, I don’t really need to go into too much detail. We all know what’s gonna happen.”

The Romero-Marinez match will air immediately before Showtime’s main event – a 12-round, 168-pound championship bout between WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (22-0, 19 KOs), a Phoenix native, and Colombia’s Alexis Angulo (26-1, 22 KOs). Showtime’s telecast will begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT with a 10-round heavyweight bout in which Sweden’s Otto Wallin (20-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) will face Travis Kauffman (32-3, 23 KOs, 1 NC), of Reading, Pennsylvania. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.