Lopez shocks the world, dethrones Lomachenko

Some said it couldn’t be done but Teofimo Lopez felt it was only a matter of time.

IBF Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez took down WBO, WBA and WBC Lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko in their title unification bout Saturday, Oct. 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The victory came at the hands of a 12-round, unanimous decision for the younger fighter.

However, the discrepancy between the scorecards became the conversation of the night.

Judge Tim Cheathem had it the closest at 116-112 for Lopez while judge Steve Weisfeld scored it 117-111.

Although, judge Julie Lederman scored the fight 119-109, in other words, one round for Lomachenko.

Julie is the daughter of late Hall-of-Fame boxing judge, Harold Lederman.

After the fight, Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) admitted he felt he won the fight but would not argue with the results citing the scorecards.

Despite his grace in defeat, Lomachenko was visibly confused by the reading of Julie’s card.

Coming into the fight, it was dubbed a “winner-take-all” bout with the winner walking away with all four lightweight titles.

At the age of 23 years old, Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) became the second-youngest three belt world champion (second only to Mike Tyson) and the youngest four-belt holder in boxing history.

Lopez took advantage of the fact that Lomachenko tends to be a slow starter.

Firing early and often, Lopez found success by varying the output and changing levels on Lomachenko.

In the second round, Lomachenko was caught with a right hand from Lopez getting a sense of his power before finding more success with his right hand.

For the majority of the fight, Lopez controlled the fight by taking the center of the ring forcing Lomachenko to react rather than control the tempo.

The trend continued through the first half of the fight before Lomachenko found his greatest deal of success in the latter rounds.

Lomachenko looked to find his best footing in the eight round when he was all over Lopez despite having the action stopped for a brief moment due to a potential headbutt.

Much of the post-fight commentary seemed to suggest Lopez was the winner of the first half of the fight but Lomachenko responded to take the second half.

Before the reading of the scorecards, a lot of the feelings seemed to lean toward a rematch regardless of the outcome.

However, in the aftermath of the reading questions began to arise about potential division change for Lomachenko.