Vasily Lomachenko isn’t giving Teofimo Lopez credit for his win over him on October 17th in their lightweight unification fight in Las Vegas because he disagrees with the biased judges he lost the fight.
The talented former three-division world champion Lomachenko has finished downloading all the information needed in how to beat Teofimo, and he’s ready to quickly avenge his loss and possibly force him to quit like so many others have.
Lomachenko says did enough to win, but the biased judges didn’t give him credit. Also, Loma says Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) fought exactly how he thought he would.
Lomachnko (14-2, 10 KOs) was worried about his injured shoulder in the early rounds, and it wasn’t until the second half that he decided to push through the pain.
As far as Lomachenko’s injured right shoulder, he has surgery two days after the fight on October 19th, and he’ll be starting rehab in three weeks. He believes he’ll be ready to go by April or May.
Even though he gave away many rounds in the first part, Lomachenko, 32, still thinks he did enough to get the victory.
Loma isn’t fawning over Teofimo the way the boxing fans ae because he knows that he beat him, and he also believes that he win the rematch if he gives him the shot.
Teofimo’s recent comment about him believing that he’ll beat Lomachenko 100 out of 100 times has the two-time Olympic gold medalist eager to fight him a second time so he can make him eat his words.
Lomachenko says Lopez got “lucky”
“I don’t give him any credit because he fought exactly the way I was prepared for,” Lomachenko said to RingTV.
“If he thinks he’s a real champion by this fight, which he just got lucky, then fight me again,” said Loma about Teofimo getting lucky against him.
When a fighter does nothing for the first seven rounds, like Lomachenko in his disappearing act against Teofimo, you’re not going to win the fight by a decision unless you score knockdowns.
Lomachenko fought well in rounds 8, 9, 10, and 11, but he gave away all of the first seven rounds, including the 12th. If Lomachenko does the math, he’ll understand that he didn’t do enough to get the win.
Right now, Lomachenko still has a slight chance of getting a rematch with Teofimo if he can push hard because the New York native still doesn’t have an opponent for his next fight.
Teofimo is talking about wanting to fight against his IBF mandatory George Kambosos Jr., but that’s a nothing match-up, and it won’t bring in viewers to ESPN the way a rematch with Lomachenko will.
What Teofimo needs it to keep the momentum going with his career, and the best way to do that is to face Lomachenko again. Teofimo fighting the little known Kambosos Jr. will be a huge backward step.
Kambosos Jr. struggled to beat past his best Lee Selby in his last fight. Selby is a guy that Josh Warrington completely dominated, and yet Kambosos Jr. barely beat him.
Teofimo didn’t win says Loma
“None of his punches really landed on me,” continued Lomachenko about the shots from Lopez. “It was like they slid off my body, they were not landing on me.
“I see at least a draw. I can say I won that fight by one round.”
Well, technically, Teofimo, 23, did win the fight, at least on the judges’ scorecards. They gave it to Teofimo by the scores:
- 116-112
- 119-109
- 117-111
Because of Lomachenko’s right shoulder injury, we don’t know who the better man was between them. It was an uneven playing field with Lomachenko fighting with an injury, and giving away a great deal of size, speed, and power to Teofimo.
What was interesting is how Teofimo was quickly worn down by Lomachenko in the second half of the fight when the Ukrainian fighter began to pressure him.
You could pure worry on Teofimo’s face from being pressed by Lomachenko, and that was against a fighter with just one good arm.
It kind of makes sense why Teofimo and his dad want no part of a second fight with Lomachenko. Right now, Team Teofimo is being idolized by boxing fans for his victory over Loma, but all the praise could evaporate into thin air if he loses the rematch to Lomachenko.
Hence, we’re seeing Teofimo drag his feet about giving him the rematch, and instead, he’s talking about wanting to fight the little known Kambosos Jr.
It seems very much like Teofimo is guarding his victory like a watchdog, not wanting anything to taint it. The best way to protect that win is by avoiding a second fight with Lomachenko.
I mean, it’s a weak move on Teofimo’s part, and it tells you a lot about him, but it’s effective. We saw the same thing with Juan Manuel Marquez when he chose not to give Manny Pacquiao a rematch after he beat him in 2012. Marquez didn’t want to change it by fighting Pacquiao again and possibly lose.
Lomachenko dares Teofimo to fight him again
“I would like the rematch with Lopez, and if he’s saying if we fought 100 times and he would win 100 times, then prove it,” said Lomachenko.
Teofimo SHOULD want to fight Lomachenko a second time. After all, the money and fame Teofimo will get from a rematch with Lomachenko will greatly surpass would he’d get fighting Kambosos Jr.
It’s obvious that Teofimo has some serious concerns about whether he can beat Lomachenko a second time, which is why he’s saying “What for?” The problem is, the fans aren’t buying into Teofimo’s reasons for why he doesn’t need to fight Lomachenko again.
They just it as for what it is. Teofimo is worried about his ability to beat Lomachenko a second time, knowing that he’ll be 100% for the rematch.
As exhausted as Teofimo looked in the second half of the fight with Lomachenko, he’s going to have problems against him in a rematch.
It’s a safe bet that a healthy Lomachenko will apply massive pressure on Teofimo from the outset and be looking to wear him down and stop him.
Even though Lomachenko lost the fight, he created the blueprint to beat Teofimo by throwing a lot of shots and massive pressure on him.
In the 11th round, Teofimo looked like he was on the verge of being knocked out when Lomachenko teed off on him.