TEOFIMO LOPEZ: New York State of Mind Part II

Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank via Getty Images

Oh this one feels so good to write! It’s not everyday that the kid you have supported since he was a prospect dethrones one of boxing’s most acclaimed Kings, but that’s exactly what happened last Saturday night when Teofimo López and Vasiliy Lomachenko fought to become the undisputed lightweight champion.

The most anticipated boxing fight of the year did not disappoint, but it might have left you with some questions. Hopefully you’ll find the answers to your questions in this article.

Last time I wrote about Teofimo was prior to his first world title fight back in December 2019, against IBF lightweight champion, Richard Commey.

In combat sports, the manner in which you beat your opposition can get you far, often further than actually building a strong résumé consisting of credible names. For a while, that can be said of Teofimo’s rise, as the young hungry predator destroyed a lineup of overmatched foes sent like lambs to slaughter. However, Teofimo stepped it up when he fought Masayoshi Nakatani in July 2019. Teofimo’s struggles in this fight (detailed in the first article) had the boxing world questioning the young New Yorker. Teofimo had a chance to redeem himself for the underwhelming display against Nakatani, when he faced the respected, but somewhat underrated, Richard Commey.

Becoming a Champion

Richard Commey had last defended his IBF belt in June 2019 when he knocked out Ray Beltran in eight. Despite being the champion and more experienced fighter, he was a slight underdog. Teofimo López Sr. talked a lot before the fight, as he always does, claiming that Teofimo would become a world champion in his 15th fight and dethrone Lomachenko for all the belts in his 16th. Although Teofimo’s father is not always the easiest person to like, it’s difficult to criticize the level of belief he had in his son from such an early stage.

Teofimo quickly took the center of the ring, closing the distance with a fast, dynamic front foot as he threw jabs to the body and the head. López made the most out of his speed advantage, moving in and out quickly. Commey, despite the reach advantage, struggled to catch Teofimo on his way in or out. The rare times it did happen, Teo was sharp enough to pivot on his lead foot and avoid Commey’s punches. While the two men exchanged blow for blow, it was Teofimo whom enjoyed the most success, perfectly mixing his punches to the body and the head.

Teofimo's shoulder roll to uppercut was also there: one of his favorite techniques. It was a good first round for the challenger, who had added Joey Gamache to his coaching team for the fight. In the second round, Teofimo surprised Commey with a very fast and out of rhythm left hook. Commey lost his legs for a brief moment. A couple of exchanges later, Lòpez and Commey both went for a right hand, but the New Yorker was faster and he kept his head off center line. Teo’s right hand connected on the jaw of the champion and sent him stumbling to the canvas, badly hurt.

As Commey stepped in with his high guard, he was welcomed by a crisp lead check hook, perfectly timed. This rocked him a little bit but Commey is game and went back to work. Teo changed levels (like he did in round one) to draw something out of the Commey, and then the clash of right hands sent the champion to the ground. Richard managed to get back up, but the fight was waved off 30 seconds later as he was taking a beating from López on the ropes.

Teofimo López had become a world champion in just his 15th fight, just like Teofimo Lopez Sr. had predicted. Of course, as soon as López blasted Commey, the entire boxing world had only one name in mind for Teofimo: Vasiliy Lomachenko.

Beating Lomachenko

As soon as Lopez was announced as the new IBF lightweight champion, Bob Arum (promoter of both Teo and Loma) brought Lomachenko into the ring and told Teofimo not to “fuck this up”, referring to them promoting the fight. The young lion wasn’t at all happy that Lomachenko stole his shine; it was his night, but at least he knew what was next. Next, was arguably the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

The fight first got delayed because of the pandemic. Then, in the summer the negotiations took a while but finally we had a date: October 17th 2020 in Las Vegas.

Through all the build-up there wasn’t a week in which Teofimo López Sr. was not talking trash about Lomachenko and his team. For more than two years now the two teams had been shitting on each other. Loma saying that Teofimo is nothing special, and Teofimo accusing Loma of being an illusion and promising to expose him. To me, it always felt more competitive than mean, but it did sell the fight pretty well.

Let’s be clear here, when the fight got announced, 95% of the boxing world said “Teo’s good but he’s gonna get schooled in there”. From professional fighters, to broadcast teams, to fans, I heard it from almost everyone. (Editor’s Note: Wikipedia would ask for a citation here, but I can assure you Philippe is extremely online so take his word for it)

Although the Richard Commey blowout somewhat erased the not-so-inspirational performance against Nakatani from people’s memory, it wasn’t enough for people to think he could rise to the occasion and beat Lomachenko.

Throughout the entire year, Lopez trained a lot and stayed in amazing shape, but his relationship with his father seemed to change. Teo even went as far as saying that even though “he loves him to death” he wishes his father wasn’t “just his boxing coach” and that “he’s hurt” and sad that things changed.

The most important part was that Teofimo was ready and so was Lomachenko: ready to prove to the world that they were the best lightweight out there. Teofimo kept repeating over and over that people were in for a surprise if they didn’t believe in him, calling Lomachenko’s footwork “an illusion” that hides how poor he is on the back-foot.

The weigh-in face-off was intense as neither fighter respected the COVID-19 protocol and went head-to-head.

Vasily Lomachenko had never been disrespected and annoyed by an opponent as much as he was by Teofimo and his team. This reminded me of some Conor McGregor/Jose Aldo moments prior to their fight at UFC 194.

The Fight

Teofimo walked out first as we got to hear Biggie blasting “Where Brooklyn At?” being mixed into “Another One Bites the Dust”. You gotta’ love it. Even without an audience, boxing walkouts remain a level above anything else in terms of pre-fight hype.

The intense and dynamic walkouts introduced the fighters. It’s finally time. All the talk is done; the winner takes all the belts.

After 484 days, the 32-year-old Lomachenko was back in the ring. As the bell rang, the broadcast team mentioned all-time great lightweights such as Roberto Durán, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chávez Sr. High stakes.

The first thing to mention is that Loma fights out of a southpaw stance while López is an orthodox fighter. Teofimo instantly put pressure on Lomachenko, taking less than two seconds to blast a jab, then another one followed by a right hand to the body. Loma was circling towards Teo’s power hand, and the American was landing it hard to Lomachenko’s body as he exited.

Teofimo’s first step is so fast and efficient. That truly is one of his main strengths and I think it shook Loma a little bit early. Loma circled the other way after a few minutes and starting meeting the lead hand of the American. López’s jab set up most of his attacks in that round. Or to be more accurate, Teofimo’s lead hand set up a lot of his offense, jabbing to the body, feinting the jab and most importantly, hand-fighting Lomachenko.

Teofimo’s footwork is very good. He tends to cover a lot of distance and perfectly use the traditional rules of inside and outside lead foot position (inside for the jab, outside for the rear hand).

Loma’s high guard allows him to take the heat off most power punches upstairs, but that long midsection of his was getting blasted every 20 seconds. Perfect round for the American. As it was still very early in the fight, people were questioning whether Lomachenko was starting slowly “to download data” or Teo was not letting him get to work as usual.

In round two there was one specific sequence that highlights all the good qualities of Teofimo and how he didn’t allow Lomachenko to get going. Let’s break it down.

Lomachenko’s head movement and high guard really protects his head a lot. It’s very difficult to land clean on the Ukrainian, but not impossible. As Vasiliy moved his head from his left to his right to avoid the jab, Teofimo anticipated the trajectory of the head movement and landed a big right hook around Loma's high guard. And he didn’t stop there, he threw a jab, then secured outside foot position and threw a right to the body followed by a left hook right into the solar plexus. Loma's back hit the ropes so he wanted to quickly circle away, but Teo got in his way as he placed his front foot right in the middle of his stance while swinging a hook from the left. Loma then found himself still on the ropes and tried to flee on the same side. Although he slipped Teo's jab, he could do nothing to avoid the heavy right hook on the exit.

Teofimo was controlling the range and the ring so well. Loma started to fire some good straight left hand counters at the end of round 2, frustrated by the situation.

Those early rounds all followed a similar pattern as Teo was completely containing Loma’s offense. That’s what the man said pre-fight: that if you can keep Loma guessing and on the back-foot, “he ain’t much, I don’t fall for that illusion”.

Teofimo never missed a chance to land to the body, banking those shots as often as he could. Despite Loma starting to get a bit more active in rounds three and four, they were still clearly Teo’s rounds. López doubled up on the lead hand (jab, left hook) and landed uppercuts whenever Loma changed levels. Even when he wasn’t throwing, López’s footwork was effective at cutting off the ring: lead foot on the inside when he wanted Loma to circle to his left and blocking the left side when he put his lead foot on the outside.

In round six Loma was still struggling to get any offense going. López was not stopping his own offense at all, though. Teo used his lead hand to touch and manipulate the guard of Lomachenko, then changed level and went for the jab to the body followed by that left hook and right hook on his way out which prevented Loma from countering as he had to stay behind that high guard. That was a real problem for Loma who’s never been the sharpest counter-puncher anyway. Teofimo being an orthodox fighter knew very well that his jab was probably going to be slipped and countered by the left straight but as he picks his shot so well and always lands combos on the exit he does not allow Loma to counter at all.

In round seven, Loma got a bit more active, and we got some exchanges that were even but I still scored it as a Lopez round. It was therefore 7-0 Lopez on my scorecard. Teofimo so far fought the perfect fight and stayed sharp and focused at all times. Vasiliy then had his back against the wall, and could not allow himself to waste any more rounds. So he closed the distance, using some goods left hand feint and right hook behind it. Teo’s defense was solid though as he managed to block most of it, but at least Lomachenko was making him work.

Loma’s success came from throwing that left straight right in the chest of Teofimo and following with the right hook above the lead shoulder (of the shoulder roll) of Lopez.

Lovely sequence by Loma here who displayed his agressivity on the inside once again. Teofimo not comortable at all in those position.

If the rounds from eight to eleven were going to belong to Loma, Lopez made sure to fight hard. Knowing he couldn’t afford to spend more time on the inside with Loma he’ll push him back often when Loma gets too close or countered Loma’s jab with the shoulder roll and uppercut. That movement is really something that Teofimo drilled a lot lately and he used it at an insane speed. This often saved him from Loma’s momentum.

Despite Teo’s effort, Loma finally managed to light him up at times in round ten and eleven. Loma’s jab followed by his patented step to the right and left hook caused a lot of problems to Teofimo. Every time the Ukrainian southpaw managed to attack towards Teo’s left side he was landing clean combos. Mixing it as well as we all know he can and giving the fight an entirely different dynamic to what we saw in the early rounds.

Once again, Loma stepped to Teo’s left to come back with a series of punches. Loma took the outside angle and feinted a left hook to the body and instead of pivoting on his front foot, he switched stances twice, that way he was still in southpaw to chase Lopez. Loma landed a good jab then went to Lopez’s left side and from orthodox lands a clean left hook. He then went back to southpaw as he ducked under the hook, blocked the counters and landed a series of punches. Beautiful work from the master, but the canvas was still primed for a great work of art to be created.

Round 12 - Teofimo Paints A Masterpiece

Loma’s momentum was at his highest after round eleven. ‘The Matrix’ had seemingly won four rounds in a row and it seemed like the winner of round twelve would edge the victory. I thought of Duran Leonard I right away, when Duran boxed Leonard in round 15 to assure himself the victory of a close fight. Maybe Teofimo Lopez Sr. thought the same as he asked his son to box with Loma for the last round.

The younger Teofimo had other ideas, and put his foot on the gas for the last three minutes to make sure Loma was on the backfoot again.

I can’t stress enough how impressive and beautiful this round was from Teofimo Lopez. It started like the previous rounds, with a lot of pressure by Loma, but this time Teofimo countered hard to the body and pushed him back several times when he closed the distance.

Loma did try to cut the ring and trap Teofimo but the younger man dealt with it like a veteran. Teo would either grab onto Loma and get back to the center of the ring or he would push the Ukrainian back and on the exit throw a bomb of a right hand. And once again, Teofimo never neglected the body, he landed most of his counter hard in the stomach of Loma.

With one minute left in the fight and this round was still up for grabs, until Teofimo landed an uppercut and a beautiful left hook on the exit that smashed off of Loma’s chin. From that moment he staggered Loma several times, going to the body with the lead hand and coming heavily upstairs behind it.

Lopez frames Loma with his left arm (to prevent headbutts as Loma changed levels) but also to hide the right uppercut behind it. Then Teo pushed him back with his right hand and left shoulder. Landed a soft right hook to manipulate Loma’s guard and land a fast left hook on his chin.

Lopez definitely got Loma’s timing down and was the one landing big shots to the head and body. With twenty seconds left, the referee stopped the action following a headbutt from Lomachenko that opened a cut on Teo’s right eye. They slugged it out for the last seconds and in those exchanges Teo’s power made the difference, backing Loma all the way to the ropes with two heavy shots.

Getting the outside lead foot position was never a problem for Teofimo, Switching from inside and outside very easily as Loma backs up in a straight line.

Teofimo won round twelve and took the decision to become the undisputed lightweight champion of the world, not that his heroic effort in the last round was necessary anyway.

I had Teofimo winning eight rounds to Lomachenko’s four, but I can see seven rounds to five as well. The official scorecards make it seem like anybody watching had zero understanding of boxing: they were way too wide compare to the actual fight. 119-109 was a disgrace.

In the end though, Teofimo Lopez Sr’s prophecy came true: His son had won a World championship in his 15th fight, and become undisputed champ in his 16th.

What’s really interesting now—with no more prophecies from the senior Teofimo—is what’s next for Teofimo Jr? When a fighter accomplishes such a huge achievement early on in their careers they often end up having trouble finding motivation or direction later on. But from what I saw with Teofimo in the last few fights, he doesn’t seem like that type of fighter. He’s like an old school boxer when it comes to his mentality. I’d recommend to anyone to watch the post fight press conference below, where he breaks down the fight with Loma and talk about his future goals and opponents.

Until we find out about his next moves (Lomachenko rematch? Devin Haney? A move up to 140lbs?) be sure of this: the New York State of Mind series will continue with the next chapter in this impressive young man’s career.