Teofimo Lopez is a three-weight world champion.
On Saturday night, Lopez moved up to the welterweight division to challenge his friend, Rolly Romero, for the WBA welterweight title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. After 12 rounds, Lopez edged out a majority decision to take the title after 12 rounds of tepid action.
Longtime friends, the relationship between Lopez and Romero appeared to be on rocky ground heading into the bout, leading many to wonder what sort of fight fans might be in store for, and in the end, it looked more like a sparring session between friends rather than a world title fight.
For most of the 12 rounds, Lopez leaned on a high-volume style, relying on his hand speed and craft to consistently out-work Romero with jabs and body shots. Romero, meanwhile, spent much of the fight waiting on Lopez, looking for an opportunity to land a big counter shot to turn the tide.
In the fifth round, Romero finally got just that, landing a check left hook when Lopez came in that put “The Takeover” on skates. Lopez was able to survive the scary moment and make it to the end of the round. That could have been a tide shift for Romero, but instead he returned to his low-output style in the next round and was comfortably outworked for the remainder of the fight.
In the end, Lopez won a decision; though, boxing being boxing, one judge scored the fight a draw, resulting in a majority decision win for Lopez.
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