Vasiliy Lomachenko: Judges in Teofimo Lopez fight were bribed
Vasiliy Lomachenko said immediately after his unanimous-decision loss to Teofimo Lopez on Oct. 17 in Las Vegas that he felt he won the fight but would withhold further comment until he watched it again.
He watched it again. His conclusion? The judges were bribed, although he didn’t say who did the bribing.
Lopez won by official scores of 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112. Boxing Junkie had it 116-112 — eight rounds to four — for Lopez.
The following is from a video posted on Lomachenko’s Instagram account (see below), with a translation from Russian to English:
“If we counted the scores strictly by the book, the scorecard would be different. I took one round for the first half of the fight and five rounds for the second one, namely 7-11 rounds.
“We’ve got 6-6, which is a draw. And if it’s a draw we use the unspoken rule of boxing, we look for 10-12 rounds. And I won two of them. It’s 2-1. Even if I won three rounds in the first half of the fight, I wouldn’t win the fight as for the scorecards.
“What does it say? It’s not about bias, it’s about being bribed. There was nothing about honest judging. … I don’t know whose game it was. … I do think it was somebody’s game.
“They knew that the possibility of knockout from my side was around 20%. Why not then?
Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) became undisputed lightweight titleholder with his victory. Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) lost for the first time since his second pro fight, a split-decision against veteran Orlando Salido in 2014.
Lopez and Lomachenko are both promoted by Top Rank.