NEW YORK – Teofimo Lopez was concerned when it took longer than normal for the scores to be read after his obvious victory over Josh Taylor on Saturday night.
The former unified lightweight champion lost a split decision to Australian underdog George Kambosos Jr. the last time he fought in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Lopez defeated Taylor decisively, but his worries were validated when ring announcer Mark Shunock revealed how the judges saw their 12-round, 140-pound title fight.
Two judges – England’s Steve Gray and New Jersey’s Joe Pasquale – credited Taylor for winning five rounds apiece, 115-113, in a fight Lopez appeared to win more comfortably than that. The third judge, Canada’s Benoit Roussel, scored nine rounds for Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs), who won 117-111 on his card.
Had Gray and Pasquale scored one more round each for Taylor, their bout would’ve resulted in a majority draw.
“I knew they were gonna do something kinda shiesty,” Lopez told a group of reporters at ringside. “It took a long time for them to come up with the scorecards. They were trying to figure it out. And I told everybody, I was like, ‘Listen, y’all better not steal it. Ain’t no f****** way you can steal this!’ ”
Lopez and Taylor are both promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. The Brooklyn native, who has fought nine times either at The Theater or Madison Square Garden’s main arena, didn’t elaborate on why he thought he wouldn’t get fair treatment on the scorecards.
The 25-year-old Lopez took complete command during the second half of their fight for Taylor’s WBO junior welterweight title. The accurate counterpuncher stunned Scotland’s Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs) several times and picked apart the former fully unified 140-pound champion at times, particularly during the one-sided ninth, 11th and 12th rounds.
CompuBox unofficially counted almost twice as many punches for Lopez as Taylor.
According to CompuBox, Lopez landed 158-of-517 shots overall, 76 more than Taylor (82-of-341). CompuBox credited Lopez for connecting on 78 more power punches (138-of-343 to 60-of-194) and Taylor for landing two more jabs (22-of-147 to 20-of-174).
The 32-year-old Taylor acknowledged that Lopez deserved to become the first fighter to beat him as a professional. He disagreed, however, with Roussel only scoring three rounds for him in a main event ESPN televised.
“Hey, listen, no excuses,” Taylor told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna in the ring. “I wasn’t my best, but listen, the better man won on the night. So, I’ve got no excuses. I prepared to the best of my ability. Felt amazing in the gym, felt brilliant, you know, so no excuses. Just he was better on the night tonight, so yeah, it is what it is.
“But congratulations to Teofimo. And I thought it was a close fight, but listen, that 117-111 was way too [wide]. So, I would love to do it again. I would love to do it again, no problem. I definitely know I’m better than that and I know I can beat him. So, yeah, I would love to do it again. But he’s the champ, so the ball’s in his court.”
Taylor didn’t have a rematch clause in his contract because Lopez was the mandatory challenger for his WBO belt. Lopez wouldn’t discuss potential opponents for his next fight after he became a champion in a second division, but a rematch with Taylor seems unlikely because Lopez beat him convincingly.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.