Sandor Martin was outraged—to say the least—by the latest win from Teofimo Lopez.
The skilled southpaw from Spain had a case of deja vu after Lopez won a somewhat narrow decision over Jamaine Ortiz in their 12-round 140-pound fight for Lopez’s WBO title Thursday night at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, in the lead-up to Super Bowl weekend.
Neither Lopez nor Ortiz landed much of anything in a fight lampooned by most fans and observers. Lopez assumed the role of aggressor but was largely ineffective and Ortiz was content to circle the ring from the southpaw stance. It immediately called to mind the risible snooze fest between lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Edwin De Los Santos in November.
For Martin, however, the result of the fight immediately conjured up the one he had with Lopez in December of 2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
In that bout, Martin troubled Lopez at times during their 10-round contest and even dropped Lopez in the second round. Lopez, however, would scrape by with a split decision.
But even Lopez seemed to be aware that he won on tenuous grounds as he was caught questioning himself—“Do I still got it?”—on the ESPN telecast.
In a post on his social media, Martin made it clear that he thought Ortiz deserved the nod on the scorecards. Lopez won via 117-113, 115-113, and 115-113.
“AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN [face palm emoji],” Martin wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Stop Protecting this guy.”
The post was accompanied by a photo showing Lopez with his head flung through the ropes against Martin during their fight.
Martin emerged from Euro obscurity when he defeated Mikey Garcia in 2021 by majority decision in what was one of the biggest upsets of that year.
Martin, the top-ranked 140-pound contender in the WBC, inked a promotional deal with Top Rank last month. The current WBC champion is Devin Haney, whom Top Rank formerly promoted when he fought George Kambosos for the undisputed lightweight championship, twice, and Vasiliy Lomachekno.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.