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By Mark Eisner: Teofimo Lopez (18-1, 13 KOs) won a questionable 10 round split decision victory over Sandor Martin(40-3, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. Teofimo was the house fighter, so it wasn’t surprising that he won the contest.

Sandor dropped Teofimo with a right hook in the second round, and missed out on a second knockdown in the seventh round when he was down. Although the referee ruled it a slip, on replay, it appeared to be a legitimate knockdown.

The scores were 96-93, 97-92 for Teofimo, and 95-94 for Sandor. Boxing News 24 scored it for Sandor 8-2.

Undercard results

• Heavyweight fringe contender Jared Anderson (13-0, 13 KOs) stopped journeyman Jerry Forrest (26-6-2, 20 KOs) in the second round of a scheduled 10 round bout in the chief support bout. The referee stepped in and halted the bout due to the punishment he’d absorbed from the 23-year-old Anderson. In the first round, Anderson threw 114 punches, which is an incredible amount for a heavyweight. Anderson was hit with some big shots while attempting to go for the knockout in the first, and he was lucky that Forrest didn’t have more power because he was hit clean each time. If Anderson continues fighting like that, it’s only a matter of time before he gets knocked out. He can’t forget his defense against fighters like Deontay Wilder without getting knocked cold. What tonight’s performance showed is that Anderson lacks the power to score knockouts without throwing an accumulation of shots. The time of the stoppage was at 1:34 of the second. Anderson got hit in both rounds with shots that would have knocked out a lot of guys. “Anybody in the top 15. Filip Hrgovic, Dillian Whyte, Daniel Dubois, and Michael Hunter,” said Anderson when asked who he wants to fight next.

• Unbeaten, highly hyped junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas (15-0, 10 KOs) had a lot of trouble defeating Alexis Salazar (25-5, 10 KOs) by a less than impressive eight round unanimous decision. The 20-year-old Zayas looked one-dimensional on offense, throwing the same chopping right hand to the head repeatedly, and eating a lot of left hooks from Salazar. For a fighter that is hyped as much as Zayas is, he looked flawed in every department, especially with his defense. The judges scored 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73. Zayas doesn’t look ready for the better fighters in the 154-lb weight class, and if he moves up to 160, he’s going to struggle. If this is as good as it gets with Xander, it will take masterful match-making by his promoters at Top Rank to maneuver him into a position to win a paper title. Zayas doesn’t look good enough to beat contenders like Sebastian Fundora, Erickson Lubin, Brian Castano, Tony Harrison or Tim Tszyu.

• Unbeaten lightweight prospect Keyshawn Davis (7-0, 5 KOs) kept his perfect record intact with a lopsided eight round unanimous decision win over 34-year-old veteran Juan Carlos Burgos (35-7-3, 21 KOs). The judges scored 80-72, 80-72, and 80-72. Keyshawn had Burgos hurt late in the seventh round, but was nailed by several hard headshots from the Mexican warrior.  Those punches from Burgos resulted in Keyshawn giving up on the idea of trying to finish him. You’ve got to give Davis credit for taking some huge countershots from Burgos because he was hit clean by several punches that he didn’t see coming. Keyshawn looked good, but not on the level of Devin Haney, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, or Shakur Stevenson. Davis is kind of mechanical with his fighting style and not as fast as he needs to be for him to compete with the elite-level lightweights in the division. Keyshawn could pick up a belt once Haney and Shakur move up in weight to the 140-lb division.

• Light heavyweight prospect Joe Ward (8-1, 4 KOs) defeated Frederic Julan (12-2, 10 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The scores were  78-74, 79-73, and 79-73.
• Undefeated heavyweight prospect Damian Knyba (10-0, 6 KOs) stopped Emilio Salas (7-4-1, 3 KOs) in the second round. The bout was halted by Salas’s corner. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:50.
• Junior middleweight prospecct Tiger Johnson (7-0, 5 KOs) stopped Mike Ohan Jr. (16-2, 9 KOs) in the fifth round. The referee halted the bout at 1:29 of the round.

Preview: It’s an important fight for the 25-year-old ESPN house fighter Teofimo (17-1, 13 KOs) to show that he’s got the goods to become a star.

Mentally, Teofimo looks VERY shaky, and his loss to George Kambosos Jr last year showed that he’s not an elite fighter.

Moving up to 140 hasn’t changed anything, as he looked just as poor in his debut in the new weight class against Pedro Campa as he had against Kambosos.

It’s painfully obvious from watching Teofimo’s last two fights that Top Rank got it wrong with him, and that’s not the fighter they thought he was.

Teofimo is being matched against a B-level guy in Martin (40-2,13 KOs), and if he doesn’t look and/or loses again, Top Rank will need to start thinking about dumping him.

Boxing News 24 will be giving live updates & results below.

In the co-feature bout, heavyweight fringe contender/prospect Jared Anderson (12-0, 12 KO) faces journeyman Jerry Forrest (26-5-2, 20 KO) in a 10 round fight. Despite having a lot of knockouts, the 6’4″ Anderson isn’t a big puncher.

Forrest will be the bigger puncher in this fight. Anderson has good size & boxing skills, which should be enough for him to win tonight as long as he doesn’t get clipped by one of Forrest’s heavy shots.

Top Rank is grooming the 23-year-old Anderson to turn him into a world champion, but they’re going to have to be careful with the way they match him because his defense is porous, and he’ll be vulnerable to getting knocked out if they throw him in with punchers like Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua.

Andre Ward: “I think this may be a tough fight for Teofimo,” said Ward to Max on Boxing. “Martin may be a trap fight because Teo has a lot of pressure on him because he’s on Heisman night. It’s going to be difficult against Martin because he’s a guy that boxes.

“He allows you to do all the heavy lifting, make the mistakes, and then he tries to counter,  and he’s also a really good boxer. So Teo has got to be on point. Not just physically, not just with his training camp, but mentally, he’s got to be in the right space.”

Max Kellerman: “I’m looking at his [Teofimo] second fight at 140. His first time out [against Pedro] Campa, he looked good, boxed well, but his punches didn’t have the same authority as they did at lightweight. What are you looking for here?

Tim Bradley: “Going from 135 to 140, I think he’s [Teofimo] an accumulation type of puncher now. I don’t think he’s one of those one-punch guys, get them up out of there. I will say this. After watching his last performance, one, he needs to stay off the ropes.

“If Martin gets him against the ropes, he’s going to pick & poke his way to victory. I would say also, he needs to get more disciplined with his defense. Sometimes, he needs to get a bit complacent inside the ring, and when he does, those are moments that Martin is going to make him pay.

“I think, all in all, Teo is going to win the fight. I think the punching power is going to make the difference. The fact that he’s an explosive puncher and a great counterpunch. Martin counters, but he doesn’t counter often enough.”

Kellerman: “Teo is a different kind of athlete. With the 139 pounds he weighed in, he looked good. He didn’t look healthy at lightweight. He looked healthy and in shape at 140, coming in a pound under the limit.”

Teofimo Lopez returns to the ring to headline against replacement opponent Sandor Martin live on ESPN & ESPN+ from Madison Square Garden in New York. The main portion of the event starts at 9:00 p.m. ET.