Madison Square Garden, New York City – Former European champion Sandor Martin (40-3, 13 KOs) was not happy with the officiating for his fight with former lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez (18-1, 13 KOs), who made his second appearance at junior welterweight.
Martin accepted the fight on a few weeks’ notice after Lopez’s originally opponent, former two-division world champion Jose Pedraza, withdrew with illness.
Martin gave Lopez all he could handle but fell short on the losing end of a ten round split decision.
Lopez was down in the second round and several of the rounds were close.
The scores were 95-94 for Martin, 96-93 for Lopez and 97-92 for Lopez.
Martin believes the two judges who scored the fight for Lopez were way off – and he strongly felt the referee blew a second knockdown call.
“It was a surprise with the judges. I won this fight clearly. For one judge, I only won two rounds? Really? There were two knockdowns. The referee didn’t count one of the knockdowns. [Lopez] missed all of his punches. That’s a masterclass of boxing. That’s a robbery. But that’s the sport of boxing,” Martin said.
“In the ring, I controlled all the action. The timing. The moments. In the ring, controlled everything with my will. Teofimo was overanxious. In the eighth round, his corner told him, ‘Hey, let’s do it. You could lose this fight.’
“[And] it wasn’t just the broken nose. I only had three weeks of preparation. The broken nose was from an accidental headbutt. But I didn’t worry about this. But I knew that it would hurt every time he punched me there. But he didn’t punch me. Every time he punched me, I said ‘Ow.’ But he touched me three times? Four times, maximum? Really? You win with this?”