10/18/2020 2:41 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 10/18/2020 7:45 AM
There was a surprise among the 250 guests at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the millions of viewers who followed a promising night of boxing from their homes.
The young
Teofimo López
retained his IBF lightweight champion title and
snatched three belts from
the experienced
Vasiliy Lomachenko
, the undisputed monarch in that category.
The American, of Honduran descent, prevailed
unanimously
on the cards
, after twelve rounds that were a long way from meeting the forecast for "Fight of the Year."
López was the dominator of the first half of the fight, although without too many hits on the Ukrainian super champion.
For the judges, his insistence and subsequent endurance deserved him to come out as the great winner of the night, in which the lightweight category titles were unified.
The scorecards were 116-112, 119-109 and 117-111 in favor of the 23-year-old boxer, who remained undefeated.
"Definitely, I do not agree with the cards," said Lomachenko, considered one of the best fighters today.
López retained the International Boxing Federation (IBF) belt, which he had obtained last December with a knockout of Ghanaian Richard Commey.
In addition, he
stripped the Ukrainian of three titles
: those of the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).
The greatest emotions came only in the last rounds of the fight.
And they also extended beyond the action on the ring, as the cards surprised after
a much more even fight than the result appeared
.
🥊 Two champions faced each other in #LomachenkoLopez for #CombateSPACE, but only one got all the belts. Did their cards match any of the judges?
pic.twitter.com/dJ0qfpOLAQ
- Space (@canalspace) October 18, 2020
"It is the time of a new generation and it was my turn," Lopez said as he left the ring.
"I am a fighter. I receive one and I give one, it is what a champion does," completed the American, who had promised a knockout.
Even he couldn't meet the predictions.
The qualifier
"Fight of the year",
with which the specialists were deluded in the previous one,
collapsed
after the first six rounds.
In them, López launched numerous blows, but almost none compromised Lomachenko.
The Ukrainian was limited to moving continuously so as not to be easy prey and was waiting expectantly for a misstep from López.
The American did not fall into Lomachenko's trap, but neither did he hurt his opponent, who from the sixth round began to dispute the initiative.
The European continued to throw fewer punches than López, but was more effective.
He seemed to have the fight in his fist in the penultimate round, although caution against the power of his adversary and fatigue, at 32, prevented a quick definition.
"I think I've won the fight
," Lomachenko said.
"But I am not going to discuss it now," added the Ukrainian.
He had only lost once in his more than 400 amateur appearances and now suffered
his second professional loss
(the previous one, to Orlando Salido in 2014).
He was left with a record of 14 wins (10 KO) and two knockdowns.
Vasiliy Lomachenko, with two of the belts he lost to López.
The Ukrainian discussed the ruling.
Reuters photo
Instead, Lopez
took his undefeated to 16 wins
(12 on the fast track).
And he took a firm step towards the great scene.
In addition, he gave a joy to Honduras, whose flag wore on his pants.
"I want to say that this is for Honduras, for all my Latinos, for all my people. This is just the beginning," said the fighter, who received the greeting of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on social media.
The fight between López and Lomachenko marked the beginning of a series
of high-level evenings
at the end of 2020.
On October 31, Gervonta Davis and Leo Santa Cruz will fight in San Antonio, with an audience, and Naoya Inoue will face Jason Moloney.
On November 14 it will be the turn of Terence Crawford-Kell Brook, while two weeks later the exhibition between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. will take place. For December there are the fights between Errol Spence Jr. and Danny García (5) and between Anthony Joshua-Kubrat Pulev (12).
Among all of them, perhaps one of them will be able to enchant to stay, with good reason, with the
great poster of "Fight of the year".
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