By Sean Jones: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum maintains that Sandor Martin “ran like a bandit” against his fighter Teofimo Lopez last Saturday night in their main event fight on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Arum states that he had the former unified lightweight champion Teofimo (18-1, 13 KOs) winning “every round” of the 10-round fight against the Spaniard Martin (40-3, 13 KOs). I don’t know about Teo winning every round, but he did appear to win one round, but that’s it.
Indeed, two judges seemed to agree with Arum, scoring it for Teofimo by 96-93 and 97-92. The third judge had the 29-year-old Sandor winning 95-94. This writer scored it for Sandor 9 rounds to 1. It wasn’t close.
It was a masterclass performance from Sandor from rounds 1 through 10, schooling a clueless-looking Teo on the art of hitting & not getting hit.
Teofimo looked mentally gone from the second round after he tasted the canvas after walking into a perfectly timed right hook counter by the highly skilled Sandor.
The ringside crowd, who arguably mainly were New Yorkers, abandoned their hometown hero Teofimo after the fight, failing to cheer after the results were announced, giving him the victory.
The absence of cheering by the New York crowd showed that they disagreed with the results and had Teofimo losing to Martin.
If Arum had any sense, he’d schedule an immediate rematch between Teofimo and Sandor because this is NOT the type of fight that Teo can walk away from without it permanently damaging his career.
When you get a hometown decision like this that the boxing disagrees with, it’s essential for the promoter to make every effort to schedule a rematch.
The fact that Arum said nothing about wanting to put together a Teofimo vs. Sandor rematch suggests that he lacks confidence in Teo to win a second fight.
Bob Arum: Teo won “every round”
“He ran like a bandit. It’s tough to fight a guy like that, and look at that one judge [that scored it 95-94 for Sandor]. What fight was he watching?” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to Fight Hub TV, talking about Sandor Martin and how he outboxed his fighter, Teofimo Lopez.
“I gave Teo; it was a slip in that first or second round. I gave him every round. It’s tough to fight a guy that won’t fight you.
Options for Teofimo
“There’s a lot of guys that he can fight,” said Arum when asked where does Teofimo go from here. “[Jose] Ramirez. He can fight [Regis] Prograis. We’re blessed with a lot of 140-pounders.
“No,” said Arum when asked if Teofimo Lopez is “comfortable’ at 140 after his second fight at that weight. “I think it’s an adjustment. Five pounds sounds like nothing, but it’s a lot of weight.
“I think you would have to favor Prograis, but I think Teofimo can beat him,” said Arum when asked how Teofimo would do against WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis.
With the way Teofimo looked last Saturday night, Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) would tear him apart and finish the job that George Kambosos Jr started last year.
Prograis would knockout Teofimo, which is why Arum, as wise as he is, won’t go in that direction for Teo’s next fight. He’ll play it safe by matching him against WBO 140-lb champion Josh Taylor or former WBC/WBO champ Jose Ramirez. Those are at least semi-winning fights for Teofimo.
I don’t see Teofimo beating either of those fighters, but he stands a better chance against them than he would against Prograis. Fighting Prograis mean that Teofimo would likely get knocked out, which would finish his career or, at the very least, hurt his ratings for his ESPN fights.