A modicum of defense? You realize Loma threw nothing for 5 rounds right? And when Loma finally let his hands go he tagged Lopez repeatedly. Unless you saw something different.
You can knockout elite fighters if you have power, skill and accuracy. But its almost impossible to do it if the opponent wont engage. Loma wouldnt engage and fought negatively. Which is why he lost the fight. If Loma would have thrown more punches and been more aggressive than maybe Lopez would have got the knockout.
The guy just beat arguably the best fighter p4p at age 23 in his 16th pro career and was the underdog. I’m not sure what more you expect for a guy that has a lot more room to improve over time given that he just made a big statement on his win. Give him a couple more big fights and a few more years to improve. He’s just getting started.
I don't think anyone can discredit this huge win by Lopez tonight. But he's a very flawed fighter. He showed very little head movement especially in the last 6 rounds and he kept his hands quite low during that time as well. That could be disastrous against a heavy handed opponent. He's so young though and has plenty of time to fine tune his weaknesses. I was very surprised with his footwork though and how he was pivoting all night long which negated a lot of Lomas angles. That really helped neutralized Loma's superlative footwork. I still think this was Loma's fight to lose. He shouldn't have been so gun shy in the first half of the fight. He dug himself a major hole by round 8 and probably needed at least 1 knockdown (doesn't look like it would've mattered though given how wide those scorecards were.)
Loma did engage him in the second part of the fight and ate plenty of shots. Dumb gameplan from Loma, no doubt about it. Realized too late he was down and finally decided to let his hands go. Should of done that in round 3 instead of 6.
Loma has been caught being aggressive. Linares dropped him. Lopez punches much harder than Linares. He had to be careful after he tasted Lopez power. I underrated Lopez boxing skills to be honest.
I give him credit, it is a fantastic win. I just don't see great fundamentals out of Lopez. I think it is going to cost him down the road.
I think he still looked very beatable tonight. Lomachenko was lacklustre. He didn't try at all in the opening 6-7 rounds and then had plenty of success when he actually started initiating offense. Couple that with 14 month lay off and size disadvantage and suddenly it doesn't make much of a case for Teo being p4p number 1. He was the winner tonight for sure but not as much as Loma was the loser. No one part of his game dazzled wherein you thought 'who on earth could deal with that?' - instead we thought, 'oh he's better than we thought. Good'.
I think this fight was alot like the first fury wilder fight in a sense where Loma flicked the switch later and realized lopez was hurt and didn't like being bullied and backed up. I see a wilder fury 2 type of beat down in a rematch.
You know, all trash talking aside...I believe he just did not want to embarrass Chenko and it was like Armstrong/Ross where he probably held off on an easy KO because Chenko has been a solid enough champ. Much respek.
I really don't see a future true great in Lopez, but I think he will have an excellent run for a while as a member of the pound-for-pound rankings. He's really solid. Flawed, but carries serious power and great timing/athleticism.
Lopez won tonight, but the story is more about Loma giving the fight away by not throwing any punches for 6 rounds. He got hit a lot by Lomachenko in the last half of the fight. If Loma had a bit more power, he wouldn't have made it to the final bell. He won, but I would can't put him above the likes of Usyk, Canelo, Inoue or Crawford on the P4P list. He got hit too easily and that can be a problem when he fights people who can match his size and activity.
Commey not a legit puncher enough? Guy was an unbeaten champ on uncorrupt cards and was sparked before he could say 'I... um', so Lopez punched out a top puncher and boxed out an elite boxer for 4 titles at 23, at an age Loma hasn't even perceived the spanking Salidaddio would unleash later. It's perceptions: you can look all flashy and suffer losses vs. heavy underdogs who don't pass the eye test, and you can be HOF Andre Ward getting the job done over and over again.
