George Kambosos’ Win Over Teofimo Lopez Stirred Lightweight Division, Is Boxing’s Upset Of The Year
George Kambosos Jr. upset the odds and made his critics look foolish on November 27 when he defeated Teofimo Lopez, the then WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and The Ring lightweight champion.
Lopez, 24, was a strong favorite entering into the fight.
He was coming off the biggest win of his brief career where he beat Ukrainian superstar Vasiliy Lomachenko via decision. It was later revealed that Loma fought with a shoulder injury, but the news did not take any glory away from Lopez.
The 24-year-old and his father were confident that the former champ will knockout Kambosos in early rounds so that they can prepare for the next fight against another lightweight champion.
The fight was postponed multiple times. Kambosos was away from his pregnant wife and kids in Australia, but did not pay attention to any distractions. He was confident of outboxing Lopez at every press conference regardless of what the pundits had to say.
In the final seconds of the first round, Kambosos had the Hulu Theater up on their seats when he sent Lopez down.
Lopez did not absorb any injury and recovered swiftly from the knockdown, but the fans were in disbelief to see the challenger treating the former champ in such fashion.
Lopez had the hometown crowd on his back and was a better, stronger puncher of the two, but Kambosos was tactical as we have seen him.
He slipped Lopez’s powerful strikes without much trouble and consistently landed his shots on Lopez.
Fans were expecting Lopez to come up with a different plan after consulting his corner after every round. However, they seemed to have no answer for Kambosos’ agility.
The 28-year-old suffered a knockdown in the 10th round, but got back up within a few seconds and teased Lopez. Kambosos seemed loaded to go all 12 rounds from the beginning.
With the fight going to distance, the judges declared the visitor the winner via split decision.
The first judge scored the bout 115–111 for Kambosos, the second scored it 113–114 for Lopez while the other scored it 115–11 for the Australian star.
Kambosos Jr got a lot of respect, but Lopez took some heat from fighters on social media for not admitting that he had lost fair and square. He congratulated his opponent for being crowned the new lightweight king, but felt like he was robbed off a win.
Women’s boxing ace, Claressa Shield, was among the several boxing fans who Lopez left unimpressed with the gesture.
Champions take losses really hard…. But umm this ain’t it.
— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) November 28, 2021
It’s hard losing though…. But it’s still just shake hands, congrat the other fighter & go back to the drawing board.
— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) November 28, 2021