By Dan Ambrose: Teofimo Lopez Sr gave pointers to Vasyl Lomachenko’s opponent Jamaine Ortiz on how to beat him on Saturday night.
As many boxing fans remember, two years ago, Lopez Sr’s son, Teofimo Jr, defeated Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in October 2020.
What helped Teofimo win was his huge size advantage and Lomachenko being injured. Teofimo was like a light welterweight taking on a super featherweight, which worked in his favor against Loma.
Lomachenko fought with an injured right shoulder in that fight and threw only a handful of punches in the first seven rounds. In the last five, Lomachenko came storming back, dominating Teofimo.
Once Lomachenko was healthy, he and his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, attempted to get a rematch with Teofimo, but he surprisingly showed no interest, choosing to defend his titles against his IBF mandatory George Kambosos Jr in a fight that he might have thought was going to be a slam-dunk win.
Sadly, Teofimo wasted a year of his career waiting for the Kambosos fight to take place and then lost by a 12 round decision.
In hindsight, Teofimo would have been better off fighting a rematch with Lomachenko rather than hand-picking Kambosos and waiting a year for that fight to finally occur.
It’s questionable what Teofimo Sr can tell Jermaine Ortiz to help him beat Lomachenko. The only reason Teofimo won is that he was arguably a 140-pounder fighting a one-armed fighter.
“I’m just excited to see Vasyl Lomachenko. At least for a while, he’s out of harm’s way,” said Bob Arum to Fighthype. “Those people who live in Ukraine, particularly those who put on a uniform to defend their country, they’re the real heroes.
“Vasyl was great; he lost an opportunity to fight Kambosos for a title, but it was more important for him to defend his country. Now his country has given him permission to resume his career.
“I think after this, he’s going to go back and put a uniform back on again. He and his compatriot Usyk has to continue their boxing career because this conflict in Russia could draw out, and an athlete has so many years that he can perform,” said Arum.