Teofimo Lopez Outboxes Rolly Romero to Become Three-Division Champion
Michael Huezo
Host · Writer
LAS VEGAS — Teofimo Lopez did what he came to Las Vegas to do. He just had to survive a scare in the middle rounds to get there.
Lopez captured Rolly Romero's WBA welterweight title Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena by majority decision, 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112, in a fight that swung more than the final scores suggest. The two former sparring partners traded control across twelve rounds in front of a crowd that was overwhelmingly behind Romero.
The "Rolly" chants started early and never really stopped. They rained down after the opening bell and again through the championship rounds, loud enough that the broadcast team kept pointing them out. Romero fed off it in flashes. He landed a fast left hook in round one and looked composed early, but he came back to his corner after the round in a state his trainer Ismael Salas couldn't quite reach, staring blankly and barely acknowledging him between rounds.
From there, Lopez took over. He kept his right hand glued to his chin on instruction from his father and trainer, Teofimo Sr., picking his shots instead of forcing the action, and the numbers back up how well it worked. Lopez out-landed Romero 124 to 73 in total punches and connected on a career-high 62 jabs, keeping Romero from ever putting together a sustained offensive charge. Romero failed to land in double digits in every round except one.
That one round changed the temperature of the entire fight. In round five, Romero opened a significant cut over Lopez's right eye and hurt him with a series of punches, including a left hook and a looping right hand. A bloodied Lopez had to lean on his boxing IQ just to survive the round.
"He hit me with a shot that woke me up," Lopez said. "I told him he has to do better than that. I was just buzzed. I got right back to it. I stayed cool, calm and collected. We have the ring experience. That's what's helped me throughout my journey."
It was sharp enough that Teofimo Sr. leaned into his son's ear between rounds and admitted they'd been taking Romero too lightly. "We needed this, man," he told him. "I told you we're playing with this guy too much. Need to wake up."
Lopez heard him. He pushed the pace harder over the second half of the fight, working behind the jab and staying just out of range, while Romero settled into long stretches of inactivity broken up by occasional flurries. Romero clawed back some momentum late, wobbling Lopez with a left hook in the final seconds of round 11, but it wasn't enough to turn the fight back in his favor down the stretch.
Salas tried to get more out of his fighter in the championship rounds, telling him he needed to meet Lopez in the center of the ring rather than retreat to the ropes. Asked afterward whether Romero was taking that advice, Salas didn't oversell it. "Sometimes," he said.
Romero didn't agree with how the judges saw it. "I got hit with two punches the whole fight that barely grazed me," he said. "I was never in any trouble. When I heard 114-114 I knew it was a robbery."
Lopez saw a bigger picture in the result, becoming a champion in a third weight class after climbing back from his loss to Shakur Stevenson in January. "If you lost and you come back, then you never lost, because you're a winner," Lopez said. "I'm a true example of what winning is. It's about not giving up." Asked what's next, he said he's looking forward to whatever comes.
Romero will have to regroup after the first defeat of his welterweight title reign. He gave Lopez real problems in flashes, particularly in that fifth round, but the sustained pressure and the discipline behind Lopez's shot selection were the difference over twelve rounds.
