By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
We have a new king in boxing’s lightweight division.
Australian George Kambosos Jr. has stamped his name as one of boxing’s greats after stunning the undefeated Teofimo Lopez via split decision and is now the current unified lightweight champion of the world.
Kambosos Jr. now holds the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) championship belts after a hard-fought slugfest against the heavy favorite Lopez.
It was a stunning start for Kambosos Jr. after scoring the first knockdown of the fight when he connected on a solid right overhand punch with only 16 seconds left in the first round.
Kambosos Jr. gained confidence with every round as he stalked Lopez inside the ring and was leading in the jab counter for almost every round.
However, Lopez would strike back at the beginning of the eighth round when he finally measured the distance and hit Kambosos Jr. with his signature right straight several times.
The arena went crazy in the 10th round when Lopez scored a knockdown of his own as he dropped Kambosos Jr. with a sweet right straight that was set up with his three-punch combination.
The last two rounds saw two warriors go toe-to-toe at each other but the Australian managed to land cleaner punches in the championship rounds.
Two judges scored the bout for Kambosos Jr., 115-111 and 115-112 while the other one had it for Lopez, 114-113.
