Lopez decisions Lomachenko to become unified lightweight champion!
Heading into this fight, pain and a knockout was predicted by each participant. The bad blood was clear between Vasyl Lomachenko (14-2, 10KOs) and Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12KOs).
Once the action started, it was patience by both men that highlighted the first two rounds. Lopez would come out pumping his jab and throwing right hands to the body. A notoriously slow starter, Lomachenko did not press forward too much. He instead calculated the habits of his younger adversary. He did land two straight left hands however.
LOMA ARE YOU THERE?
Known to turn up the heat as the fight goes on, Lomachenko seemed to be stuck in neutral! Kept at bay by the jab of Lopez, the Ukrainian fighter was relegated to being a gun shy fighter!
LOMA COMES TO LIFE!
Lomachenko finally comes to life after sensing that the fight is slipping away. He starts to close the distance, landing some hard shots that got the respect of Lopez. Lopez would not wilt, coming back to land hard shots of his own!
A FIGHT TO THE FINISH!
After Lomachenko appeared to win majority of the middle rounds, these two men would fight toe to toe to the finish. Hard shots from both men had to have you feeling like a knockout could be coming! However, both men showed true grit and determination, refusing to give ground! The twelfth round was Lopez’s best round of the second half of the fight. He unloaded left hooks, right-hands and body shots that appeared to shake up Lomachenko!
After the scores were read, it would be Teofimo Lopez announced as the winner and the new unified welterweight champion by a unanimous decision. The scores were 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112. One can not argue the winner, however the scorecard of 119-109 will be talked about for some time.
One thing we can all agree on is that this fight was filled with action and high skills. Will we see a rematch? Only time will tell!
For Lopez, the future is bright as he has Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis as possible opponents, just to name a few.
By: Jerrell Fletcher
