By: Sean Crose
Former light-weight kingpin Teofimo Lopez engaged in his second junior welterweight struggle on Saturday night time, as he confronted Sandor Martin in a scheduled ten rounder at Madison Sq. Backyard. The Lopez-Martin bout was the principle occasion of a card aired dwell by ESPN.
Lopez answered the opening bell by popping out aggressively, although not as aggressively as he had come out to face George Kambosos in the one struggle he had misplaced up till that time. Lopez went down within the opening seconds of the second spherical. He obtained up rapidly, nevertheless it was a shock to see Martin ship him to the mat, regardless of how briefly. With that in thoughts, Lopez appeared to get the higher of his man for the remainder of the spherical.
The third was one thing of a chess match, with every man having his moments, with Lopez on the hunt and Martin combating in a defensive format. Martin landed nicely a number of time within the fourth, however Lopez was doing good work pot shoting his man to the physique. What’s extra, Martin started to bleed fairly profusely from a conflict of heads. Martin had a stable fifth spherical, nevertheless it was clear that Lopez was in a position to attain him whereas he tactically retreated.
Lopez started to look a bit pissed off within the sixth, as he wasn’t in a position to often land clear on his man. Nonetheless each males ended up firing away at one another in shut within the last seconds of the spherical. It appeared that Lopez was the sufferer of a second flash knockdown on the the highest of the seventh, although the referee dominated it a slip. The remainder of the spherical was shut sufficient to be troublesome to attain.
The eighth was razor shut, however Lopez’ straight photographs to the physique might have edged it for him. By the ninth it appeared that Martin’s personal endurance would possibly in the end work towards him. With one spherical left to go, neither man was dominating. With that being stated, the tenth and last spherical noticed Lopez barrel alongside, whereas Martin was in a position to get some spectacular photographs in.
The judges ended up giving Lopez a cut up resolution win, with one rating of 95-94 for Martin, one rating for 96-93 Lopez, and one rating of 97-92 for Lopez.