Lopez gets off deck in shaky outing for split decision victory
Beats Martin to earn WBC junior welterweight mandatory spot
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NEW YORK — Teofimo Lopez didn’t put on an impressive display and he also got knocked down but he did enough to win a split decision over Sandor Martin in a WBC junior welterweight final elimination bout on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
After Lopez was announced as the winner before the pro-Lopez crowd of 8,029 in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN Heisman Trophy night card, he donned the jersey of USC quarterback Caleb Williams, who earlier in the evening won the Heisman Trophy a few blocks from the Garden, and then did his traditional post-fight back flip.
Two judges scored it for Lopez, 97-92 and 96-93, and one judge had 95-94 for Martin. Fight Freaks Unite had it 96-93 for Lopez, who was knocked down in the second round and had a potential knockdown ruled a slip by referee Ricky Gonzalez in the seventh round.
The win makes Lopez a mandatory challenger for Regis Prograis, who won the vacant 140-pound title by 11th-round knockout of Jose Zepeda on Nov. 26. By winning the vacant title, Prograis is supposed to make consecutive mandatory defenses, first against former unified titlist Jose Ramirez and then against Lopez, the former unified lightweight champion.
But given the way Lopez looked it would be a surprise if Prograis wasn’t a significant favorite should the fight take place. Even Lopez had his doubts after the shaky outing. Minutes after the fight, he leaned against the ropes and asked his father/trainer Teofimo Lopez Sr., “I don't know if I still have it. Do I still have it?”
He had enough to win his second fight in a row since losing the unified lightweight title by decision in a sensational fight with George Kambosos Jr. last November, after which he moved up to junior welterweight and knocked out Pedro Campa in the seventh-round of his 140-pound debut in August.
Former European champion Martin (40-3, 13 KOs), 29, a southpaw from Spain, proved to be much more difficult. He had gained attention 13 months ago when traveled to Fresno, California, and won a majority 10-round decision over former four-division world titleholder Mikey Garcia at 144 pounds and sent Garcia into retirement. But he could not replicate the performance against a fresher Lopez, who was initially slated to face former lightweight and junior lightweight titlist Jose Pedraza before he withdrew due to illness about a month ago.
At the recent WBC convention, the sanctioning body ordered Lopez-Martin as an eliminator and with Pedraza sidelined they quickly made a deal for the new fight with Martin taking it on about three weeks’ notice.
The fight was mostly slow paced with only occasional burst of action and Lopez was not at all pleased by Martin’s negative style.
“It’s so hard to fight somebody like this when they’re running the whole time,” Lopez said. “Every time this guy committed, I countered and got him every time. He just ran the whole time. It’s OK, though. We got a lot to work on. But first off, I want to thank God for this. No matter what it was. I apologize to everybody tonight. This is not how we perform. But, listen, our dancer partner was running the whole time.
“Every time that this man wanted to commit, I was countering him and tagging him. That’s why he was running the whole time.”
But Martin felt he did exactly what he wanted to do — hit, not get hit and frustrate Lopez. He believed he won and there were some at ringside who agreed.
“It was a surprise with the judges. I won this fight clearly,” Martin said. “For one judge, I only won two rounds? Really? There were two knockdowns. The referee didn’t count one of the knockdowns. He missed all of his punches. That’s a masterclass of boxing. That’s a robbery. But that’s the sport of boxing.”
By the end of the very slow-paced first round, Martin was cut on the bridge of his nose, which he said was broken, from an accidental head butt.
“It wasn’t just the broken nose. I only had three weeks of preparation,” Martin said. “The broken nose was from an accidental headbutt. But I didn’t worry about this. But I knew that it would hurt every time he punched me there. But he didn’t punch me. Every time he punched me, I said ‘Ow.’ But he touched me three times? Four times, maximum? Really? You win with this?”
Early in the second round, Martin scored a flash knockdown when he landed a short right hook high on the side of the head that briefly dropped Lopez, who bounced up quickly and finished the round strong.
Brooklyn, New York, native Lopez (18-1, 13 KOs), 25, began to let his hands go in the third round. He caught Martin with multiple stiff right hands as well a combination as he stalked forward.
Lopez threw many wild shots and was off balance but Martin, who doesn’t throw a lot of punches or have much power, failed take advantage. He moved backwards often and Lopez was the one making the fight, which typically is rewarded by the judges.
Gonzalez warned Martin for hitting behind the head late in the sixth round, which seemed to upset Lopez, who was all over Martin with punches in the closing seconds. Another right hook from Martin cuffed Lopez behind the head in the seventh round and he went down to a knee and Gonzalez ruled it a slip.
With neither fighter throwing many punches and the action limited for much of the fight, the fans began booing the extreme slow pace in the ninth round.
The final round produced no urgency from either man, although Lopez had one offensive spurt midway through the round when he forced Martin to a corner and landed a combination.
Martin landed a right hand as Lopez was pushed under the rope with about 30 seconds left and Gonzalez warned him for the infraction, and when the bell rang they both raised their hands in victory.
“I felt great overall,” Lopez said. “I knew he was tired. He didn’t want to commit. He was staying on his back foot and just running around the whole time. But it is what it is. This makes it look good. These guys are going to want to fight me now. More than ever. Now this is great. Now I can actually have a good fight.”
According to CompuBox statistics, Lopez landed 97 of 391 punches (25 percent) and Martin landed 77 of 244 (32 percent). Lopez outlanded him in eight of the 10 rounds with one round being tied.
Lopez was not shy about who he wants to fight in the future.
“We would love to fight (WBO champion) Josh Taylor. We would love to fight Regis Prograis, or even a rematch with George Kambosos,” Lopez said. “My whole thing now is just staying focused and staying devoted.”
Photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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Kinda frustrating to watch, but Martin fought an excellent fight and Lopez fought a one dimensional fight. I had it for Lopez, but just.
Lopez needs another dimension to his game.
After watching the fight I had Martin winning by 3 points. Questioning myself, I watched it again without sound .....and it was the same. Lopez continually missed .....CompuBox was totally inaccurate in its assessment. Matin was a defensive wizard which he received no credit for. Lopez could not land anything of significance. Martin was very successful as a counterpuncher , not Lopez. Although it wasn’t pretty the real winner was Martin easily. Politics stole this one$$! Regis Prograis is a superb fighter and may end up retiring Lopez. I see Prograis outboxing and outfighting Lopez with a potential stoppage. It should be entertaining but it won’t be close.