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By: Hans Themistode
Teofimo Lopez Sr. flashed a huge grin as the 12th round came to an end.
Moments earlier, his son, Teofimo Lopez, had just finished a grueling back and forth war with George Kambosos Jr. at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater. While it appeared as though their contest was close, Lopez Sr. was convinced that his son dominated the action.
However, just minutes later, Lopez Sr. was left shellshocked as his son was handed the first defeat of his pro career. In addition to losing the 0 in his loss column, Lopez also saw his unified lightweight title reign come to an end.
Even now, having had several hours to dissect the reality of the situation, Lopez Sr. is still incredulous that his son’s loss was legitimate.
“Man listen, you can’t win a fight if you’re not staying busy,” said Lopez Sr. during an interview with SecondsOut. “My son was touching him every second. Everybody knows he won that fight. Everybody knows that. I had it 10-2, 9-3. Everybody was just upset. They booed the decision in the Madison Square Garden. The whole arena was upset at what happened. It was a complete robbery.”
Despite Lopez Sr.’s scorecards being heavily in favor of his son, the majority of the judges viewing their contest ringside, saw things completely differently. In the mind of judge Don Trella, he believed Lopez did just enough to prolong his title reign as he scored it 114-113. Ultimately though, he was overruled by Glenn Feldman who scored it 115-112 in favor of Kambosos Jr., and Frank Lombardi who handed in a scorecard of 115-111 in support of the Australian native.
Early on, Kambosos Jr. flexed his muscles and roared in the face of the opposing crowd as he registered a first-round knockdown. Even with Lopez struggling early on, the New York native bounced back in the 10th, evening things up in the knockdown department.
Regardless of the momentum being firmly in the corner of Lopez, Kambosos Jr. wrestled it away with strong performances in the 11th and 12th.
As reality has continued to set in, Lopez Sr. is still chastising the overall ruling of the judges. More than anything, however, Lopez Sr. harks back to a conversation that he had with his son years ago and re-emphasizes the importance of closing the show before the judges are called into action.
“In this game, you got to knock everybody out. If you don’t knock them out, this is what happens. We dictated the fight from the beginning aggressively. There’s no way this kid beat us.”
