the fighter who struggled to find his rhythm against Shakur Stevenson<\/a>. He was relaxed, economical and willing to let his hands go. Romero, meanwhile, appeared strangely hesitant. He landed an occasional right hand, but there wasn\u2019t enough behind the punches to discourage Lopez from coming forward.<\/p>\nBy the fourth round, Lopez was clearly outboxing the champion and Romero\u2019s corner knew it. He was told between rounds that he had to let his hands go if he wanted to keep his WBA title.<\/p>\n
Romero finally did just that in the fifth round, which was the most significant stretch of the fight for the champion. Romero began firing with greater authority and landed a punch that opened a nasty cut over Lopez\u2019s right eye. Blood poured down the challenger\u2019s face, and for a moment the fight looked like it might go in a different direction. The crowd, heavily in Romero\u2019s corner, came alive.<\/p>\n
But Lopez wasn\u2019t finished. He had survived the round and whatever Lopez\u2019s corner did between rounds was good enough to keep the cut from becoming the story of the night.<\/p>\n
Lopez went back to work and regained control in the sixth. He continued pressing forward, mixing his jab with combinations and body shots while Romero increasingly found himself on his bike.<\/p>\n
A pattern had been established: Lopez came forward and Romero retreated. Lopez jabbed and countered and Romero waited. He occasionally landed a solid right hand, but he rarely followed it with anything substantial. Lopez was the aggressor, and the longer the fight continued, the more Romero seemed to need something dramatic to happen to change the outcome.<\/p>\n
The cut over Lopez\u2019s eye continued bleeding, but his corner did an effective job of managing it. Lopez never allowed the injury to influence the fight.<\/p>\n
By the ninth round, Romero began coming forward with more urgency, but the champion needed to do much more than that. His corner continued urging him to establish his jab and engage, yet Romero repeatedly returned to his bike.<\/p>\n
The tenth and eleventh rounds followed the same pattern. Lopez kept advancing behind his jab while Romero ran. There was a vocal pro-Romero crowd at T-Mobile Arena, but the champion wasn\u2019t giving it much to cheer about.<\/p>\n
Going into the final round, Romero needed a knockout. Lopez continued coming forward and Romero remained reluctant to take the risks necessary to turn the fight around. There was a brief moment of tension at the start of the round when Lopez embraced Romero and whispered something to his former friend and sparring partner before Romero pushed him away.<\/p>\n
Then they went back to work. Lopez kept pressing. Romero kept moving.<\/p>\n
When the final bell rang, Lopez had spent most of the night dictating the pace and distance. Romero had his best moment in the fifth, but he never capitalized on it.<\/p>\n
The decision was considerably closer than what most expected, with Lopez winning a majority decision with judges scores of 114-114, 115-113, and 116-112.<\/p>\n
Romero left the ring acknowledging God and without answering any questions. After the fight it was apparent that he was not pleased with the judges. \u201cWhen I heard 114-114 I knew it was a robbery,\u201d Romero said afterward. He also maintained that Lopez had barely touched him and that he was never in trouble. Romero called the decision political and insisted he had done enough to retain his title.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to push the fight,\u201d Lopez said afterward. And that was essentially the story of the night.<\/p>\n
Lopez appeared to be pleased with his performance, crediting former Top Rank matchmakers Bruce Trampler and Brad Goodman for the education he received during his career. He wasn\u2019t interested in dwelling on the narrow-looking scorecards. \u201cThe score card, I couldn\u2019t care less,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cIn the end we got the victory.\u201d He also revealed that he has a baby on the way and wants to spend some time with his family before deciding what comes next.<\/p>\n
Hernandez Gets by Veron<\/p>\n
Yoenli Hernandez remained undefeated against Francisco Daniel Veron, winning by majority decision with scores of 95-95, 98-92, and 99-91. Hernandez was the more active fighter for much of the fight, utilizing his power and pressing forward. However, Veron had his moments and kept it interesting.<\/p>\n
Russell Wins the Interim Title<\/p>\n
Gary Antonio Russell dominated Victor Santillan to capture the interim WBA super bantamweight title by unanimous decision with scores of 118-109 and 119-108 (2x). It was a frustrating fight at times, with both southpaws spending too much time holding. Russell\u2019s speed was the difference. He was able to get in and out before Santillan could establish much of an offensive rhythm, and he gradually built his lead as the fight progressed. Russell saved one of his best moments for the final round, scoring a knockdown seal the win.<\/p>\n
Utria Wins a Controversial Decision<\/p>\n
The most contentious result of the undercard came when unbeaten Carlos Utria defeated Israel Mercado by split decision in a 10-round super lightweight fight. The judges score cards were 96-94 for Mercado and 96-94 \u00a0and 97-93 for Utria. The 97-93 card in particular did not sit well with the crowd, which booed the decision. Mercado had his moments throughout the fight and finished strongly, making the decision one of the night\u2019s more contentious results.<\/p>\n
Other Bouts<\/p>\n
Marco Romero stopped Kahlil Mitchell at 2:33 of the first round in a middleweight bout.<\/p>\n
Joseph Brown won a six-round unanimous decision over Alton Wiggins. All three judges scored the fight 60-54 for Brown.<\/p>\n
Aldo Blancas defeated Ricky Mamone by unanimous decision with scores of 40-35, 39-36 and 39-36. Blancas scored a knockdown in the second round.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Johnson won a unanimous decision over Jose Gabriel Rodriguez, winning 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55.<\/p>\n
*We should note that six undefeated fighters were featured and all six remained so, with their records improving to:<\/p>\n
Yoenli Hernandez 11-0, 9 KOs<\/p>\n
Carlos Utria 15-0, 11 KOs<\/p>\n
Marco Romero 15-0, 13 KOs<\/p>\n
Joseph Brown 8-0, 5 KOs<\/p>\n
Aldo Blancas 3-0, 2 KOs<\/p>\n
Benjamin Johnson 8-0, 7 KOs<\/p>\n
To comment on this article in the Fight Forum, please CLICK HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez Takes Rolly Romero\u2019s WBA Title in Las Vegas By the end of Saturday night, Teofimo Lopez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[301864,301865,155931,703,292319,301866,49,48,155814,264221,295480,301867,301868,174735,301869,301870,301871,301872,301873,2673,704,82,88162,1608,1610,301874,295481],"class_list":["post-869311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-aldo-blancas","tag-alton-wiggins","tag-benjamin-johnson","tag-boxing","tag-brad-goodman","tag-bruce-trampler","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-utria","tag-diego-larcorse","tag-francisco-daniel-veron","tag-gary-antonio-russell","tag-israel-mercado","tag-jose-gabriel-rodriguez","tag-joseph-brown","tag-kahlil-mitchell","tag-marco-romero","tag-oliver-mccall","tag-ricky-mamone","tag-rolly-romero","tag-shakur-stevenson","tag-sports","tag-teofimo-lopez","tag-the-sweet-science","tag-tss","tag-victor-santillan","tag-yoenli-hernandez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}