Teofimo Lopez W12 Vasiliy Lomachenko... Twenty-three year old Teofimo Lopez is the new lightweight champion of the world, soundly defeating boxing legend Vasiliy Lomachenko in Las Vegas to collect all four major titles. Unable to figure out a way to counter Lopez's power and speed, Lomachenko gave away the first half of the fight through a near-total absence of offense. While Lomachenko rallied in the second half, Lopez had a commanding lead going into round twelve and then clearly won the final three minutes. Lomachenko said afterwards, "In the first half of the fight he (Lopez) won more rounds, but in the second half, I took it over and I was much better. I want to go home and review the fight. Right now I don't agree with the scorecards." Very few people will agree with that assessment. The official scorecards accurately judged the action, coming in at 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112. Boxingtalk scored it 117-111 for Lopez, giving Lomachenko only rounds nine, ten and eleven. Compubox credited Lopez with 183 punches landed to 141 for Lomachenko. ESPN commentator Andre Ward incomprehensibly scored it 114-114.

The controversial Teofimo Lopez Sr., who never boxed, is now, stunningly, the leading contender for trainer of the year. The elder Lopez now joins Enzo Calzaghe, father of Joe Calzaghe, as men who trained their sons to world championships despite having never laced up the gloves themselves.

Lomachenko completely gave away the first half of the fight. He moved around and exhibited defensive proficiency but his offense was nonexistent. Nonexistent means about ten punches thrown per round, with none of the offensive angles that made Lomachenko famous. Lopez ended round six with a hard body shot-uppercut combination. In round seven, Lomachenko finally began to throw more punches, and by the eighth round, he landed some meaningful ones, but it was still hard to give him either round. The tide began to turn in the ninth round, as Lomachenko finally was emboldened to come forward. Lomachenko seemed to finally find a rhthym, and got the first round on Boxingtalk's scorecard. The tenth remained competitive, with Lopez holding his hands too low and Lomachenko taking advantage of the opening with some solid jabs. The ESPN announcers thought the fight was close going into the last round, but Lopez clearly won the last round. Just when it looked like he had Lomachenko in danger of a potential knockdown, the two men clashed heads, and Lopez got a bad cut over his left eye. There were only ten seconds left in the fight, so the cut was not a factor. source: espn