Boxing Challenge: Lopez shocks Lomachenko

 IBF lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez entered his lightweight unification fight against the thought to be unbeatable WBA and WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko with plenty to back up after Lopez and his father had spent much of the last year crowing about how Lopez was equipped to defeat the two-time Olympic and three-division champion.

There will be no crow eaten by Team Lopez on this night as Lopez upset Lomachenko via unanimous decision in a fight that might be looked at equally at what Lopez did do and what Lomachenko did not.

The scores were far too wide with a 119-110 Lopez that will comfortably fit into the Hamburglar file of terrible scorecards by the usually reliable Julie Lederman, but I have no problem with Lopez receiving a nod.

Twitter seemed pretty varied in its thoughts with many having Lopez winning by as wide as nine rounds to three and others scoring it as narrow as an even split of six rounds each for a draw.

I watched the fight live "virtually" with Fred Landucci and after the fight, I counted my score as even at 114, but I didn't feel comfortable and felt that I needed to rewatch the fight immediately before outside sources begin to sink in with their cards.

Upon the rewatch, I gave Lomachenko one round that I scored for Lopez in the rewatch, and another that I gave to him could have been scored for either fighter, so the rewatch score was 115-113 or 116-112 for Lopez.

I still think Lomachenko landed the bigger shots in the second, but it's not unfair to not give him another until the eighth round.

I gave Lomachenko rounds eight through eleven and Lopez won the final round.

There were no knockdowns and neither fighter was seriously hurt in the fight, but what it really came to down to was this- Lomachenko moved too much for the first half of the fight and didn't throw nearly enough punches in that half.

When Lomachenko threw, he was effective and found his target often- he simply didn't do it enough to grab this one from the fire.

I wouldn't be against a rematch, but I'm not sure we will see one.

Lomachenko certainly deserves one, if he wants it, but there was not a rematch clause in the contract and it would be entirely up to the Lopez team to provide it.

Lopez certainly was tiring down the stretch and gave it all in winning the final round, but Lomachenko can make a case that a rematch would be different as he could start earlier in the fight.

Lopez may move up to junior welterweight, but I love the idea of Lopez staying around for a while at lightweight against other talented young fighters such as WBC champion Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, and Gervonta Davis.

I would like the idea of Lopez against the Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez winner at junior welter, but I'd bet that winner moves to 147 for a Terence Crawford match and would leave Lopez in a vacant title addition, which I don't like nearly as much.

Lomachenko has been mentioned as a candidate to return to the 130-pound division for years due to his smallish stature at lightweight and there are some interesting fights there, should he do so.

The winner of December's WBC title fight with champion Miguel Berchelt against former WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez would be an excellent option for Lomachenko.

Berchelt, in particular, has been a rumored Lomachenko opponent for years and both are promoted by Top Rank as is WBO champion, Jamel Herring.

The only issue for Lomachenko is that there likely isn't a ton of money in dropping back down to 130 other than maybe the Berchelt-Valdez winner and I'm not sure any of the other fighters are much of a challenge to him.

In the co-feature, junior welterweight Arnold Barboza won a unanimous decision over former world title challenger Alex Saucedo in a fight that was more exciting than expected.

The faster Barboza was expected to box more, but he stood and engaged the aggressive Saucedo often and was able to win many of those exchanges.

Saucedo did score the fight's only knockdown when a hook awkwardly sent Barboza to the floor in the seventh.

The knockdown wasn't scored officially until between rounds, when the Nevada replay rules scored it correctly.

I scored Barboza a 95-94 winner (6-4 minus the knockdown) and when the junior welterweight divisional gold rush begins after the expected leaving of the division by the Taylor-Ramirez winner, Barboza may be in line for one of those titles.

In the Boxing Challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me two points to zero to slice my lead to 131-122.