New undisputed lightweight champion of the world
Teofimo Lopez makes history as the first undisputed lightweight champ after defeating Vasiliy Lomachenko.
23-year-old Teofimo Lopez became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world after a unanimous decision in his 12-round fight against Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday night in a bout that was touted as the biggest of the year.
The two men spent the first half trading jabs back and forth, with Lopez setting the pace for much of the first six rounds. As such, Lomachenko was forced to play defense over the first half of the fight as he attempted to get a feel for Lopez.
Lomachenko came out firing over the second half of the fight, as he was able to get on the inside and gain positioning on Lopez. He connected a multitude of power punch combinations, which then opened him up for counters from Lopez. Despite an awakened offense from Lomachenko, Lopez was able to keep up with him throughout the rest of the contest.
In the twelfth round, Lopez mustered the remainder of his energy and fought off Lomachenko in what turned out to be his final attempt to even the score. The referee called for a break in the fight when with just 10 seconds left after an accidental head-butt from Lomachenko caused a cut to open over Lopez’s right eye.
In the end, it was obvious that Lomachenko’s slow start would end up costing him the fight. On the other hand, Lopez looked composed as he controlled the tempo of the fight throughout and he won by way of unanimous decision as a result.
CompuBox, the system used to score punches, credited Lopez for out-punching Lomachenko by 42 punches (183-of-659 to 141-of-321). Lopez also landed more power punches (148-of-364 to 78-of-172). Somewhat surprisingly, Lomachenko was able to land more jabs (63-of-149 to 35-of-295) than the undisputed champion.
Lopez’s victory not only made him the undisputed champion, it also ended Lomanchenkos 13-fight winning streak. There was no rematch clause in the fight’s contract, so the decision to accept or decline a rematch lies sorely within Lopez and his camp.