WBO light welterweight title Teofimo Lopez has been dropped from Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound top ten rankings following his contentious win over Jamaine Ortiz last Thursday night at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
A Controversial Performance
Challenger Jamaine Ortiz (17-2-1, 8 KOs) appeared to give Teofimo a boxing lesson last Thursday, exposing his inability to cut off the ring, out-landing him, and winning almost all the exchanges. The scoring by the judges was troubling, to say the least, with Teofimo being given the victory by these scores from the three that worked the fight: 117-111, 115-113, and 115-113.
Fans on social media overruled the judge’s decision, viewing it as a clear win for Jamaine Ortiz. This left Teofimo looking like a fighter who was given a win based on his popularity rather than what he did inside the ring against the superior fighter.
The overwhelming reaction to the Top Rank-promoted Teofimo’s performance from boxing fans on social media was that the three Nevada judges had given him a gift. They viewed it as another example of Teo being given an undeserving win.
Teofimo’s questionable wins since 2020:
- Jamaine Ortiz
- Sandor Martin: 2022
- Vasily Lomachenko: 2020
Updated Ring Magazine P4P Rankings
1. Terence Crawford
2. Naoya Inoue
3. Oleksandr Usyk
4. Canelo Alvarez
5. Artur Beterbiev
6. Dmitry Bivol
7. Devin Haney
8. Errol Spence Jr.
9. Gervonta Davis
10. Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez
You can argue that Teofimo never deserved to be ranked in Ring Magazine’s top 10 pound-for-pound list in the first place, given his controversial wins over Sandor Martin and Vasily Lomachenko.
If you count those as actual defeats and then look at Teofimo’s loss to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021, it’s clear that he wasn’t the fighter some boxing fans thought he was. They were fooled by Teofimo’s win over an injured, one-armed Lomachenko, which, again, was controversial and should have been either a draw or a loss.
This tells you that boxing needs better judges to score fights to avoid seeing fighters given repeated wins they don’t deserve. If the judges had gotten it right from the start back in 2020, Teofimo’s career wouldn’t have taken off the way it did, and he’d be just another one of the many contenders in the 140-lb division trying to find his way.
Teofimo needs to rematch Jamaine to erase fans’ doubts about him. He could also face the walking guillotine IBF champion Subriel Matias next to show fans he’s not a chicken.