By Steve Kim

On September 3rd in Kyoto, Japan, Danny Roman dominated Shun Kubo in nine rounds to capture the WBA super bantamweight title. Now he will return to Japan to face Ryo Matsumoto (21-1, 19 KOs) at Korakuen Hall on February 28th in what will be his first title defense.

Roman is far from content despite his new-found status as a world champion.

“I’m not satisfied with where I’m at,” Roman said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of being the WBA champion, but I need to follow it up with meaningful title defenses and it all starts against Matsumoto. He’s going to be hungry to take my title, but that’s not what I’m about. I didn’t work this hard and this long to lose now. I’m going to win and I’ll do it convincingly.”

"I've already been in the gym trying to stay sharp because I was expecting this defense to come in early 2018," Roman said. "We're going to put in an excellent training camp just like we always do. I'm excited for the challenge."

As for what the rest of 2018 and what it might have in store of Roman, Alex Camponovo, the general manager and matchmaker for Thompson Boxing told krikya360.com, - "If he has a good title defense and obviously if he's healthy, I think he could have a very busy year. The division is pretty good right now. There's a lot of things he can do in defending his title but maybe unifying it, too. But we'll see what opens up for us back at home."

If he should get past Matsumoto, perhaps Roman(23-2-1, 9 KO's) can fight back in the States and on a major television platform.

"If the television executives are interested in doing some business with us and Danny Roman, of course,''stated Camponovo.

"But dates are getting a little bit squirrely for everybody and some of the fights I'm seeing on TV don't merit to be on TV. So I'm hoping someone will give him an opportunity. A lot of people had a chance to see him on ShoBox (versus Adam Lopez) and the commentators were saying how good he was, that he was talented kid.

"So if he market here in America is not ready and open for him, we'll go wherever we have to go."

Steve Kim is the news editor for krikya360.com.