Teofimo Lopez entered Saturday’s bout for the WBO super lightweight title at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York with a loss and a pair of ho-hum victories over B-level opposition.
On top of that, his mental state was in question after bizarre comments he made about death, both about killing Taylor and potentially harming himself. His father also badgered him and clearly negatively impacted him in a haunting interview with ESPN.
Then, when the fight began, Lopez fought like he had no worries in the world and scored a dominant unanimous decision victory over Taylor. Lopez simply overwhelmed Taylor. Lopez was busier, he was smarter, he was landing the better shots and he was completely in command.
It was the kind of performance he gave in Las Vegas in 2020 when he routed Vasiliy Lomachenko to become undisputed lightweight champion and move high into the pound-for-pound list.
Lopez won by scores of 115-113 twice and 117-111 on Saturday, but the outcome was never in doubt after a few close early rounds. Lopez was landing hard shots, punched in combination and walked Taylor into shots.
As his father loudly said following the weigh-in, he badly outboxed Taylor, who had been the undisputed super lightweight champion before giving up three of the four belts following a controversial win over Jack Catterall last year.
But Taylor was still clearly the man in the division entering the fight, and was about a 2-1 favorite as all of the late betting money poured in on him.
Lopez showed no signs of performing anywhere near this level, but it was just an indicator of the enormous amount of talent he possesses. If he had a normal personal life and his father didn’t constantly harangue him, who knows what he could be capable of doing? After his last fight, a mediocre win over Sandor Martin, he asked if he still had it. Saturday, he showed he does.
“I’m so thankful right now,” said Lopez, who apologized to Taylor for saying he wanted to kill him in the ring. “It’s been a long time, a long time coming. We just beat the No. 1-ranked guy, [the] No. 1 champion, lineal world champion, Josh Taylor. [He is] the former undisputed world champion, [so I’m the] two-time undisputed world champion, Teofimo Lopez.”
Taylor had no complaints and said he lost to the better man. And that was clear from as early as the third round on.
Lopez lost his belt in the same ring to a very ordinary lightweight, George Kambosos. It came out after the fight that Lopez had a medical condition which could have killed him, but he unwisely fought anyway and lost his belts.
But he made a statement at 140 pounds with the best performance anyone has ever turned in against the previously unbeaten Taylor.
“Josh Taylor, man, he’s a tough dude, man, and I can see why he beat so many fighters,” Lopez said. “But you gotta counter the counter puncher, you gotta, you gotta outsmart the man and, and get in there, you know, and I, and I did that. I think I did it, I think I did enough, and this is what it’s all about.
“I questioned myself for a good reason, you guys don’t understand, I’ve always been my worst critic, and you guys got a little glimpse of it.”
He then turned on the megawatt smile that, combined with his punching power made him a hugely popular fighter, and asked the crowd a question.
“I just gotta ask you one thing, and one thing only: Do I still got it?”
The answer to that was patently obvious. And if he could ever get peace in his life, well, it’s not hard to imagine him doing a lot of remarkable things in the one place he does find peace: The ring.
