After months and months of trying to book this fight, Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Boxing promotion finally made it happen in the Hulu Theater of MSG and it was well worth the wait. A Fight of the Year contender would emerge from the show on stage as well, as George Kambosos Jr and Teofimo Lopez would go to war and it proved to be everything we hoped it would.
George Kambosos Jr Out-Muscles Teofimo Lopez in an Upset Win
There was a ton of build-up to tonight’s matchup, and because of that both boxers had a trigger finger just itching to be pulled. The first one to do so would be Kambosos as he dropped Lopez with a thunderous right hand as the first round ended.
Kambosos DROPPED Lopez to end round one! #LopezKambososJr pic.twitter.com/HWKyzHbUUs
— Andrew Harbaugh (@MandrewH_) November 28, 2021
From there, Lopez would win back a couple of rounds, but he never seemed to get his footing back overall. He could not win consistently in the exchanges and his constant loading up to land the knockout shot really seemed to mess with him. The main issues seemed to truly be Lopez’s father in his corner between rounds just yelling at his son and not giving much guidance.
For a while, it seemed that the Teofimo Lopez everyone knows and loves was not going to be present. As Luke Thomas points out, the Lopez from the Vasily Lomachenko fight was just not there for the middle rounds allowing Kambosos to earn some more rounds to his scorecard.
The Lopez who fought Lomachenko is unrecognizable relative to the one tonight. Kambosos is very likely winning this fight and Lopez seems to have no adjustments.
— Luke Thomas (@lthomasnews) November 28, 2021
All of this would change, though, as after rounds of headhunting, Lopez would finally return the favor and knock down George Kambosos Jr. in round 10.
TEÓFIMO LÓPEZ GETS A KNOCKDOWN 👊#LópezKambososJr pic.twitter.com/SLRUq7GcBh
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) November 28, 2021
After the knockdown, though, it seemed Kambosos was unfazed as he would pick Lopez apart and make his face resemble the work he was dishing out. Scorecards on social media were all over the place, but the majority had Kambosos up, so seemingly he just had to win the 12th and he would have a decision victory in his hands, but is it ever that easy in boxing?
He would control the pace and the action in round 12 while also taking full advantage and targeting the cut he worked over Lopez’s eye, proving he could outwork one of the world’s best. Lopez looked disgruntled and shaken after the knockdown in round one, and the chaos in his corner never helped him, never giving him a break from said chaos.
All of these factors ended up giving Kambosos the decision, but some controversy had to occur with it being a split decision. The Australian was able to pick up the biggest win of his career, and it was a fight that was only made because of him being assigned as the mandatory challenger, so who is to say he would have gotten this chance any other way.
For Lopez though, the father-son duo has worked so many times in boxing history, with the most notable example in the modern era being Joe Calzaghe. However, time and again it does not work out as intended and this may be another example. Boxers like Shane Mosley and Roy Jones Jr. had to make the difficult decisions to remove their dads from their corners and fared well after the split; it’s a tough talk, but one that likely needs to be had for Lopez.
Teofimo Lopez put all he could into the fight at the end of the night, but it was just not his night clearly, and thus the boxing world will move on with George Kambosos Jr as the unified lightweight champion and is left to contemplate what is next.
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