Kambosos shocks the world by taking Teofimo Lopez's Lightweight belts
Unlike other divisions such as Welterweight or Super Middleweight, the Lightweight division is a wildcard after tonight's fight between Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos Jr. The American champ had his first chance at defending all four WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and The Ring lightweight titles he won back in October against Vasily Lomachenko.
Before that fight, Lopez was the absolute underdog as many even suggested Lomachenko had everything to become one of the all-time greats. But Lopez came out swiging and ultimately won that fight through decision. But we all had our doubts about this fight with the Australian Lightweight. The stage was set at Madison Square Garden for a historic evening.
Kambosos was already 19-0 with a split right in the middle between wins by knock-out and wins by decision. Tonight wasn't going to be an easy fight in order to get his hands on those four titles for the first time in his professional career. He came out strong during the first round as he managed to knock Teofimo down from the get go in spectacular fashion.
Although Lopez managed to recover and got his knock.down in the fifth round. Tension was so high at a certain point in the fight that both boxers nearly hit each otther after the bell rang. It's been a while since we've seen such a beautiful exchange between two fighters. In the end, a decision had to be made but the final call was too close.
Teofimo is a sore loser.
As both fighters prepared to hear the final decision from the judges, Teofimo truly thought he was going to keep his belts but the call went the other way. The ref even lifted Lopez's hand before the decision was announced, he believed the fight had gone Teofimo's way. But the announcement was that of a new champion, Lopez couldn't believe it.
Kambosos attempted to speak to the interviewer but Lopez was having none of it, he interrupted the interview to say he won the fight regardless of the decision. Lopez also recognized Kambosos as a fighter but he still refused to acknowledge his defeat. We might even have that rematch soon after what we witnessed.
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