I saw Brian Mitchell fight Tony Lopez live twice at the Old Arco Arena. He won both in my view. I was a Lopez fan but he got counterpunched by Mitchell. The 2nd fight was even more dominant. It was just a situation where every glancing half decent punch Lopez landed the crowd went mad. That affected the judges.
My thoughts too. Funnily enough he started out as a straight up brawler they called the 'meat mincer'. After he killed Morake - so the legend goes - he adopted a more cerebral style.