Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Teófimo López

López' scored a second-round technical knockout victory against Richard Commey to capture the IBF lightweight title on December 14, 2019. In the same month, Lomachenko announced there was an agreement to face the newly crowned champion in a unification bout in April, saying, "On paper, there is an agreement that the match is going to happen, and it's going to happen in April. However, they have not yet established a date. This fight is happening in April."[1] On February 8, López hinted at a date and location for the fight on Twitter, with lyrics from the song "New York, New York", posting, "May 30th. Start spreadin' the news, I'm leaving today, I want to be a part of it. PP_?".[2] The proposed date was eventually scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Lomachenko going back to his native home of Ukraine.[3] Bob Arum, promoter of both fighters, offered each an interim bout to take place in July, which both rejected. Arum stated the new date being looked at would be September.[4] After October was chosen as a new date, the fight appeared to be in jeopardy due to a pay dispute from López, who was unhappy with an offer of $1.25m while Lomachenko was set to earn in excess of $3.5m. With López' manager, David McWater explaining, "We think that [Lomachenko] probably deserves more money, but not three times as much. We’re hoping that there is enough impetus to get this fight done, and Top Rank will come back and talk to us".[5] On September 8, after weeks of difficult negotiations, the bout was finally announced for October 17, with the venue set for the MGM Grand Conference Center in Paradise, Nevada.[6]

López defeated Lomachenko via unanimous decision with scores of 116–112, 119–109 and 117–111.[7] Judge Julie Lederman's scorecard of 119–109, giving Lomachenko only a single round, received significant controversy.[8] The fight started off with López finding his jab and going to the body to slow down his opponent. Lomachenko threw fewer punches in the first seven rounds, allowing López to control most of the first half of the fight. In the second half, Lomachenko started coming out more offensively, landing more punches. In the final round, López landed 50 of 98 punches thrown (51%), the highest ever in a round for an opponent Lomachenko has faced. CompuBox stats showed López was the busier of the two, landing 183 of 659 thrown (28%), while Lomachenko was more accurate landing 141 of 321 thrown (44%). López outlanded Lomachenko in 8 of the 12 rounds.[9]

Weight Class		Results		Method	Round	Time	Notes
Lightweight	Teófimo López (c)	Def.	Vasiliy Lomachenko (c)	UD	12		Note 1
Junior welterweight	Arnold Barboza Jr.	Def.	Alex Saucedo	UD	10		Note 2
Super middleweight	Edgar Berlanga	Def.	Lanell Bellows	TKO	1

^Note 1 For Unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, The Ring, and lineal lightweight titles
^Note 2 For vacant WBO International junior welterweight title

The fight was televised live on ESPN and streamed live on ESPN+ for the U.S. (in both English and Spanish languages) viewers only.

Country/Region	Broadcaster
	Free	Cable-TV	PPV	Streaming
United States (host)	—	ESPN	—	ESPN+
		ESPN Deportes
Ukraine	MEGOGO
Unsold markets[10]	—		FITE TV
	—	Fight Sports	—	Fight Sports MAX
Australia	—	Fox Sports	—	Foxtel Now
				Kayo Sports
France	—	beIN Sports	—	beIN Sports Connect
Japan[11]	—	Wowow	—	Wowow
Kazakhstan	Khabar	—		Khabar
Latin America[12]  Argentina  Chile  Colombia  Ecuador  Mexico  Panama  Peru  Uruguay  Venezuela	—	Space	—	TNT Go
Mexico[13]	Azteca 7			TV Azteca Deportes
			—	Azteca En Vivo
Poland[14]	—	Polsat Sport	—	IPLA
Thailand	—	Fight Sports	—	—

The fight drew about 4.2 million viewers in the United States. When it aired live on television, it drew an average of 2,729,000 viewers and a peak of 2,898,000 viewers. On the ESPN app and ESPN+, the fight drew nearly 1.5 million viewers.[15]