Lomachenko vs. Lopez in October: Can Teofimo win?

By Boxing News - 08/13/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: IBF lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez (15-0, 12 KOs) is hoping to become the unified 135-pound champion when he faces WBA/WBO/WBC [Franchise] champ Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) in October.

The two lightweight champions, both promoted by Top Rank, reached an agreement on Wednesday for a match on regular ESPN in two months from now.

The contracts for the Teofimo vs. Lomachenko fight still haven’t been signed, according to Yahoo Sports News, but they’re expected to shortly.

Teofimo-Lomachenko on regular ESPN

Lomachenko and Teofimo is a contest that has been brewing for a while now. It’s finally to happen, and that’s great for the fans. However, if they weren’t both promoted by Top Rank, this fight would likely have no chance of happening, unfortunately.

Top Rank had planned on scheduling the Lopez-Vasiliy contest for October 3, but ESPN’s situation college football is pushing the fight to the second half of the month.

The good news for boxing fans is they won’t need to pay to see Lopez vs. Lomachenko on ESPN PPV, which is great because it would be a tough sale. This is an excellent bargain for boxing fans, as they won’t need to pay to see this match. It’s also a positive for the careers of Lomachenko and Lopez because they’ll be seen by more boxing fans than they otherwise would have.

At this point, anything on pay-per-view boxing-related could struggle unless it’s a significant fight. Teofimo vs. Lomachenko doesn’t fit in that category.

Image: Lomachenko vs. Lopez in October: Can Teofimo win?

It’s a good fight, but not one that boxing fans will be willing to pay $70 to watch in this economy.

Welcome to boxing. It’s good that Top Rank has both guys so that the fans can see this match-up. The winner will be viewed as one of the top fighters at 135, but not the #1 guy.

Lomachenko and Teofimo are already being talked about as the winner being viewed as the #1 fighter in the division, which is false.  It doesn’t matter that the winner of the Lopez-Lomachenko content will hold all four titles at 135 [IBF, WBA, WBC & WBO].

Lomachenko-Lopez winner needs to face Tank

To be the real #1 at lightweight, the Lomahcenko vs. Lopez winner will need to defeat WBA ‘regular’ champ Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and WBC champion Devin Haney, and those will be tough outs.

The only thing you can say about the Teofimo vs. Loma fight is the winner will be viewed as one of the best. For them to be the best, Top Rank will need to reach out to the other promoters and set up fights with Tank Davis, Devin Haney, and Ryan Garcia.

Lomachenko vs. Lopez contest is a little bigger than the Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz match-up, which is taking place on Showtime Boxing pay-per-view on October 24. That event still doesn’t have an undercard, and it could be doomed to poor PPV numbers, even with a quality undercard.

Image: Lomachenko vs. Lopez in October: Can Teofimo win?

Right now, Davis-Santa Cruz is the only fight on the card, and it’s being sold as PPV despite no demand for this match-up by fans. It’s good that Top Rank isn’t overplaying their hand by placing Lomachenko vs. Teofimo on PPV, as that would mean two pay-per-view cards would be sold in October.

Even with one, you can imagine fans turning to watch the Davis vs. Santa Cruz bout on illegal streams or Youtube immediately after the contest takes place on the night.

Loma will try and box

Hopefully, this contest lives up to the hype. Boxing fans have been disappointed in the past when purchasing PPV events. Who can forget the duds involving Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor? Both contests went for $100 per household, and neither of them delivered in terms of excitement and drama.

Lomachenko isn’t a slugger, and he’s very likely going to be using his usual in nd out attacking style to try and win a 12 round decision against the hard-hitting Teofimo. Lopez is a big puncher, but he’s never fought anyone like Lomachenko before.

Trying to land against Loma might prove impossible for Tefimo, which means we could be in store for a boring fight in October.

Teofimo probably isn’t going to be able to outbox Lomachenko, but he does possess the punching power to knock him out. That’s Teofimo’s best bet in trying to win this fight because it’s going to be almost impossible to win a decision against the 32-year-old Lomachenko.

Orlando Solido defeated Loma by a 12 round decision in 2014, but he did it with body punching. Teofimo is strictly a head-hunter, and he probably won’t want to take the risk of targeting Lomachenko’s midsection for fear of being countered all night long.  Solido grew up as a body puncher, so it wasn’t a big deal for him to target Lomachenko’s body.

Teofimo is arguably taking this fight with Lmachenko early in his career. Still, he has no other choice Lomachenko will likely be moving back down to super featherweight, and once that happens, he’ll be out of reach.

Image: Lomachenko vs. Lopez in October: Can Teofimo win?

Lopez is ready for Lomachenko

Teofimo is one of those types of fighters that has developed his game early, and he’s probably not going to get too much better than he is right now. The hand speed, power, and accuracy that Teofimo has in his game right now make him a threat to Lomachenko.

In Teofimo’s last fight in December, he caught IBF 135-lb champion Richard Commey with a tremendous right hand in the second round that stunned him. Teofimo jumped on Commey and finished him off with a flurry of follow up power shots.