For nearly two years, to anyone willing to hear it, Teofimo Lopez Jr. and his father/trainer have said the 23-year-old brash slugger was ready to take over the sport. It turns out they were right.
Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) held off a furious rally from pound-for-pound ranked Vasyl Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) to score an upset victory by unanimous decision on Saturday to unify all four lightweight titles inside the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. Lopez, the IBF titleholder, unified the WBA, WBO and WBC titles from Lomachenko.
The judges scored it 116-112, 119-109 and 117-113 for Lopez, a native of Brooklyn, New York. CBS Sports also had it for Lopez, 116-112.
“All it is, it’s ‘The Takeover,'” Lopez said, referencing both his nickname and common catchphrase. “It’s time for the new generation to come up and it’s time for me to lead the way for everybody.”
Although it was expected that Lopez’s lone shot at victory would come through a knockout, the biggest upset on this night was that he largely outboxed the best pure boxer in the world in Lomachenko to get the victory.
source cbssports.com
video credit First Take Espn YouTube channel
