Scoring the Teofimo Lopez vs. Vasyl Lomachenko fight
Make no mistake about it, Teofimo Lopez’s backflip into history on Saturday, October 17, 2020 was a huge accomplishment. For Lopez to become the youngest Boxer in history to ever hold so many World Title Belts plus defeat a man of Vasyl “High Tech” Lomachenko’s ability/stature is a monumental fete.
No doubt the customary pre-fight tongue-lashings built up a lot of interest in this title fight.
With the scoring from Saturday’s Teofimo Lopez vs. Vasyl Lomachenko bout being so one-sided (JudgeTim Cheatham 116-112, Judge Julie Lederman 119-109 and Judge Steve Weisfeld 117-111all favoring the 23-year-old Lopezover the 32-year-oldLomachenko), there may be more than a few Lomachenko/Ukrainian boxing fans, who unable to watch the ESPN/USA telecast, might now be wondering, possibly doubting, the fairness and need some clarification.
So here we gowith ourexplanation of our “10 point must system” where the fighter deemed the winner of each round is awarded 10 points while the loser receives nine. And, on the rare occasion if a round was viewed as equal it was scored a 10-10 round. At the conclusion of each round, the three judges mentioned then handed in their scorecards to referee Russell Mora who then gave them to the ringside official. At the conclusion of this 12-round bout which went the distance, the tallies of all three judges were then added up to determine the winner.
For instance, after Judge Tim Cheatham had Lopez winning eight rounds and losing only four on his scorecard, Lopez then had eight scores of 10, plus four of 9 – making Lopez’s total 80 plus 36 for the sum of 116. Conversely, his opponent, Lomachenko, won only four rounds and lost eight, making his total 40 plus 72, equalling 112. If all three judges score the bout in favor of Fighter A, it would thereby end up as an Unanimous Decision victory, as it did. A boxer can also have points deducted in a round by the ref for persistent rule-breaking. The referee usually issues a warning first. The only rule breaking/infraction that could have affected this fight occurred in the closing seconds of the final round when Vasyl Lomachenko used the top of his head as a weapon to head-butt Teofimo Lopez above his right eye. Since nothing would deter Lopez from completing his quest, Lomachenko’s assault failed.
The scoring of points are only awarded for:
A clean, direct hit with the knuckle part of the glove of either hand to any part of the front or side of the head or body above an opponent’s belt. Note-well:A point is never awarded for an intentional head-butt.
The “belt” is defined as this imaginary line drawn across the body from the top of a boxer’s hip bones.
Points are also awarded for “defense” – the guarding, slipping, ducking or getting away from an attack. Where the combatants are otherwise equal, the majority of points are given to that boxer who does the most leading off or that boxer who displays the better style.
The actual breakdown of each round in this Lomachenko/Lopez fight:
In Round #1: the bigger man Teofimo Lopez (10-9) was no doubt the busier fighter and certainly landed far more of the cleaner shots. Believe it or not, in the range of 30 to 2.In Round #2, drawing a conclusion in regards to punches landed became more difficult. In Round #3, it was Teofimo Lopez (10-9) (right) doing more of the scoring but by a far lesser margin. Believe it or not, Lomachenko only landed 11 punches.“Whoa Nelly!” This low blow by Lopez could have cost him a point, not just a warning.
In Round #4:Teofimo Lopez (10-9) went more to the body showing his speed, patience and power to outpoint his more reluctant opponent.
Lopez definitely put Round #5 (10-9) into his column. At this point, there was no doubt Vasyl Lomachenko (left) was having trouble with Teofimo Lopez’s surprising speed and power. By Round #6 it had become a question of the age difference and it too went into the Lopez column as he took away all of Lomachenko’s angles and began to make him look ordinary.All of a sudden Lomachenko came alive and took both Round #7 and Round #8 and as one commentator remarked: “Wow, it looks like somebodies starting to have a heartbeat.” The key was put on the pressure and have Lopez work off his back foot to land his combinations.By the ninth round, Vasyl Lomachenko’s stomach had become Lopez’s target of choice and with Lopez starting to key on that specific area, those punches began to hurt.
Round #9:Teofimo Lopez (10-9) once again Lopez was the busier fighter and landed far more of the cleaner shots.
Needing Round #10, Vasyl Lomachenko (right) came hard with everything he had to back his opponent up and land the cleaner shots to secure this (10-9) round.In Bout #11, both boxers were going all out and with Lomachenko finally accepting that he was far behind on the scorecards, he turned it up another notch and won that round (10-9). Round #12: Lopez(10-9). Again the younger, busier fighter returned with more firepower and a burst of energy to insure the victory was his and that he closed the show like a champion.With one member of ESPN’s broadcast team, Andre Ward (right) proclaiming that he had scored the bout 114-114 many of the viewers at home must have been scratching their heads. Here are a few more of the tell-tale photos which sort of sum up this unusual fight. Photo right shows Vasyl Lomachenko basically covering up in the first half of this 12 round fight, while he had to withstand the firepower coming from the much busier Teofimo Lopez. Then, (top left) we see Lomachenko throwing one solid jab of his very limited number of punches. In the next frame we see Lopez ducking under one of the few Lomachenko punches to work over his midsection. In the final frame we get to see the scorecard of color commentator Andre Ward who must have been watching another fight because he ended up scoring the bout 114-114? After battling Vasyl Lomachenko for 12 hard-fought rounds, being subjected to that nasty head butt and then hearing the announcement of your unanimous decision victory, the young, excitable Teofimo Lopez showed off his gymnastic skills with a backward somersault.The joyous Teofimo Lopez team gathers around their Champion. This proud Father (Teofimo Lopez Sr.) had his boy hitting the heavy bag at four years old.Did you ever hear the expression: “Put your money where your mouth is!” One astute Las Vegas gambler by the name of Floyd Mayweather Jr. who just so happens to know a lot about the sport of Boxing did just that and made the above wager at a Sports Book in Las Vegas, Nevada for $6,500. With Teofimo Lopez being a +310 underdog, it’s likely this ticket brought back the tidy sum of $20,150. According to the Sports Books in Las Vegas, more than a few wise guys did well on this proposition.
Below we have ESPN’s complete Fightcard which was certainly a dandy. In Bout #1 they had Jai Tucker winning a Unanimous Decision over Charles Garner. Quinton Randall won a Unanimous Decision over Jan Carlos Rivera in Bout #2. Edgar Berlanga scored the Round One TKO victory over Lanell Bellows in Bout #3. In Bout #4 it was John Vincent “Mulawin” Moralde getting a 1st round stoppage of Josue Enrique Durantes Vivas. In Bout #5Josue “The Prodigy” Vargas won an Unanimous Decision victory over Kendo Castaneda. In Bout #6, it was Arnold Barboza Jr. winning an unanimous decision victory over Alex “El Cholo” Saucedo.
