Lopez vs Lomachenko: Teofimo Lopez scored an upset over Vasiliy Lomachenko by a unanimous decision on Saturday 17 October in Las Vegas to become undisputed world lightweight champion.
Lopez put his IBF lightweight title on the line and seized the WBC, WBO and WBA belts from Lomachenko who fumed after suffering his first loss in six years.
Lopez vs Lomachenko ends in an upset
Ukrainian Lomachenko, defending the title he took from Venezuelan Jorge Linares in 2018 for the fourth time, was unimpressed at the decision and immediately left the ring in disgust after the ring announcer read out the scores.
“I think I won the fight,” Lomachenko barked after the fight.
“But I am not going to argue it now.
“In the first half of the fight he won more rounds. In the second half I took it over. I don’t agree with the scorecards.”
Undisputed lightweight champion questioned
Lopez became the undisputed lightweight champion after a fight that many felt was closer than the judges’ scorecards indicated.
“I am ready to take over the world,” said Lopez, who won by scores of 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112 to stretch his career unbeaten streak to 16-0.
In the biggest fight of his career to date the American dominated the first half of the bout before Lomachenko mounted a comeback in the later rounds to set up a thrilling final round.
At 23, Lopez is the youngest fighter to become a four-belt undisputed champion.
Lopez achieved the feat in an empty MGM arena with spectators still banned because of the global health crisis.
Lopez was dealt a nasty cut over the right eye from a Lomachenko headbutt in the final round but he was able to continue and the contact was ruled accidental.
Lomachenko is an unusually slow starter and that was the case once again on Saturday. He didn’t start landing meaningful combinations until the seventh or eighth round which left him with a huge hole to climb out of.
Lopez vs Lomachenko: The Olympic pedigree
Lomachenko dropped to 14-2 with 10 knockouts. He was coming off a unanimous decision victory over English southpaw Luke Campbell last August in London.
Brooklyn native, Lopez, was making the first defence of his IBF title he captured from Ghana’s Richard Commey with a second round KO last December at Madison Square Garden. He has not lost since his last amateur bout at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Lopez represented Honduras in the Rio Games when he failed to make the America team.
Lomachenko who won Olympic gold in Beijing and London, was a 3-1 favourite heading into the fight.
