By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After three years, boxing’s lightweight division will have a new face.
Teofimo Lopez walked the talk and displayed brilliant striking to stun Vasiliy Lomachenko, lightweight’s undisputed king since 2018, via unanimous decision.
It was a punching clinic for the 23-year-old sensation after finding his distance early on and hit the slippery Lomachenko at will.
The long reach of Lopez proved to be Lomachenko’s problem in the first 6 rounds after getting hit in the mid-section and in the head several times.
One key factor that also helped Lopez grab the historic win was negating Lomachenko’s right shoulder swing, a technique Loma mastered through the years to open up his left shot.
Every time Lomachenko tried to set up his left, Lopez anticipated the movement and countered it with a left or right straight to close the left hand opening for Ukraine’s finest.
However, things got interesting when the bell rang in round 7 as Lomachenko started to counter Lopez’s game plan.
Lomachenko began to pour in the combinations and wore out Lopez through his continuous in-and-out movements in the ring and was pretty efficient and effective during round 11.
The American-Honduran Lopez began to lose steam in the round which opened up the opportunity for Loma to add to the damage he has done since round 7.
Round 12 was one for the books after both fighters slugged it out until the end but as the fight came to the results, it was Lopez who was crowned as the new WBA, WBO, WBC, and IBF lightweight king of the world.
