The fight between WBA World Welterweight champion Rolando Romero and former two-division world champion Teofimo Lopez served as sort of an unofficial start of what could be a four boxer box-off in an effort to partially unify the 147lb. Welterweight division. Coincidentally, two bouts for portions of the World Welterweight championship being scheduled a few weeks apart from each other, each being held in the same venue, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. While WBC World Welterweight champion Ryan Garcia has business to tend to against top contender Conor Benn on September 12th, it was on August 22nd that Romero and Lopez took center stage. Beyond this being an intriguing encounter between two boxer/punchers, what was of interest to this observer was whether Romero or Lopez would be able to make a strong argument for a potential unification bout with the winner of Garcia-Benn.
What happened inside the ring between champion and challenger can be best described as a tactical chess match, which featured some entertaining moments, but one that probably would not be considered the most entertaining fight to watch, at least in the eyes of some.Lopez served as the consistent aggressor throughout the fight from the start, but what made this fight competitive through the first seven rounds was that when Romero chose to let his hands go, he generally landed the cleaner punches.
The problem for Romero, however, despite appearing to legitimately stun Lopez in the fourth round with a short left hook, those periods of success when he would land clean punches were void of follow-ups. In that when Romero landed, for whatever reason, he did not press the issue. Perhaps the reason for that was the documented friendship between the two fighters prior to the fight, or simply a respect for Lopez’ punching power, which though he had not scored a knockout in over four years, is not something one should dismiss. Whatever the case might be, this consistent pattern turned what appeared to be a close fight over the first seven rounds into a lopsided one where Lopez pulled away largely because he was busier than the champion.
Despite Lopez seemingly being able to pull ahead over the second half of the fight convincingly, the official decision would be a majority vote in his favor rather than a unanimous one that he seemed to have earned. While this was not a particularly close fight when all was said and done, the only guess this observer could make as to the narrow scorecards in a fight that I ended up with an eight rounds to four margin or 116-112 in points for Lopez, is that it might logically be explained by how the first seven rounds were scored, which to be honest, there really was not much to separate the fighters round by round, but the rounds Lopez was able to win during that stretch were a result of his consistent aggression. Had Rolondo Romero opted for a bit more aggression of his own rather than tactical sharp shooting that while effective when he was able to execute it, was simply not consistent enough. Simply put, Romero let this fight get away from him and unfortunately for him, it cost him his world title.
Although the fight was to be honest underwhelming and that is one reason why there is not much analysis yours truly can offer beyond what amounts to a summation, it might have been a case of a bad meshing of styles. As for what this will mean for the overall picture in the Welterweight division, Teofimo Lopez’ stock has obviously gone up as now a three-division world champion. Whether or not he will indeed be next for the winner of Garcia-Benn is to be determined. For Rolando Romero, losing his world title in this fight is by no means a career-ender, but he needs to go back and watch this fight and see where he could have turned it in his favor. He just was not busy over the second half and if one were honest, did not feel comfortable coming out of his shell. If he were a bit more offensive-minded and were able to find a balance between tactical sharp shooting in looking to counter, take advantage of openings, and being offensive where it is harder to deny him the nod in what otherwise might be viewed as close competitive rounds. Regardless of the outcome, Romero is still likely to remain a player in the 147lb. Welterweight division and could easily find himself back in the world title picture in the not too distant future.
“And That’s The Boxing Truth.”
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