Teofimo Lopez becomes a three-division world champion after edging Rolly Romero in a 12-round WBA welterweight title fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas; Yoenli Hernandez, Gary Antonio Russell and Carlos Utria also score wins on the PBC PPV card.
By Chris Williams
LAS VEGAS – Teofimo “The Takeover” Lopez added another world championship to his résumé Saturday night, defeating Rolando “Rolly” Romero by majority decision to capture the WBA Welterweight World Championship in the main event of the PBC Pay-Per-View event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Lopez earned the victory by official scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 114-114, becoming a three-division world champion in the process. The former lightweight and junior welterweight champion moved up to 147 pounds for his welterweight debut and dethroned Romero in a closely contested 12-round championship fight.
The victory marks a major comeback for Lopez, who returned to the win column after suffering a decision loss to Shakur Stevenson earlier this year. Romero, meanwhile, was making the first defense of the WBA welterweight title he won from Ryan Garcia.
Lopez Uses Speed, Footwork and Jab to Outpoint Romero
Romero created the most dramatic moment of the fight in the fifth round, opening a significant cut over Lopez’s right eye and briefly hurting the former champion with a left hook and looping right hand.
Lopez survived the surge and used his experience, movement and boxing IQ to regain control. From there, his speed and footwork repeatedly frustrated Romero’s offense as Lopez maintained distance and scored with a sharp jab.
According to CompuBox statistics, Lopez outlanded Romero 124-73 overall and landed a career-high 62 jabs, allowing him to control the range for much of the fight.
Romero had another strong moment late in the 11th round when a left hook knocked Lopez off balance, but Lopez remained composed through the final round and secured the majority-decision victory.
After the fight, Romero disputed the judges’ decision, while Lopez emphasized perseverance and his ability to bounce back from defeat.
“If you lost and you come back, then you never lost, because you’re a winner,” Lopez said.
With the win, Lopez improves to 23-2 with 13 knockouts and becomes a world champion in a third weight division.
Yoenli Hernandez Defeats Francisco Daniel Veron
In the co-main event, undefeated middleweight contender Yoenli Hernandez (11-0, 9 KOs) remained unbeaten with a majority-decision victory over Argentina’s Francisco Daniel Veron.
Hernandez won by scores of 98-92 and 99-91, with the third judge scoring the bout 95-95. The highly ranked contender showcased his combination of technical boxing and power against Veron over 10 rounds.
Hernandez also recovered from a difficult fifth round in which Veron caught him off balance and briefly forced him onto the ropes.
Gary Antonio Russell Wins Interim WBA Super Bantamweight Title
Top contender Gary Antonio Russell (22-1, 13 KOs) captured the Interim WBA Super Bantamweight Championship with a dominant unanimous-decision victory over Victor Santillan.
Russell swept the scorecards 118-109, 118-108 and 118-108, and punctuated his performance with a 12th-round knockdown.
The victory makes Russell the third member of his family to win a world championship, joining his brothers Gary Russell Jr. and Gary Antuanne Russell.
Russell controlled the action with his speed and inside fighting, landing 170 power punches compared with 85 for Santillan. He scored the decisive knockdown with a right hook to the temple in the opening seconds of the final round.
Carlos Utria Edges Israel Mercado in Split Decision
Unbeaten super lightweight prospect Carlos Utria (15-0, 11 KOs) opened the PPV main card with a hard-fought split-decision victory over Israel Mercado.
Utria prevailed by scores of 97-93 and 96-94, while one judge scored the bout 96-94 for Mercado.
The competitive fight produced nearly identical punch totals, with Mercado landing 157 of 587 punches and Utria connecting on 152 of 593.
Utria closed the fight strongly, winning rounds six through nine on two judges’ scorecards to secure the decision.
PBC Prelims Feature Marco Romero Knockout
Before the PPV main card, the PBC Prelims streamed live on DAZN and Prime Video and featured unbeaten middleweight prospect Marco “El Tiburón” Romero (15-0, 13 KOs).
Romero stopped Kahlil Mitchell by first-round knockout at 2:33, continuing his unbeaten run and maintaining his impressive knockout percentage.
The preliminary card also featured a unanimous-decision victory for 19-year-old super welterweight prospect Joseph Brown and a decision win for super lightweight prospect Aldo Blancas.
Photo Credit to Cris Esqueda/Premier Boxing Champions
