By Cliff Rold
21-year old lightweight Teofimo Lopez (14-0, 11 KO) may not be ready for some of the big names he’s already calling for but Friday night at the MGM Grand in Oxon Hill, Maryland, he picked up twelve of the sort of rounds he’ll need when he gets there.
Lopez, 134 ¼, of Brooklyn, New York, won a unanimous decision over 30-year old Matsuyoshi Nakatani (18-1, 12 KO), 134 ¼, of Osaka, Japan in an IBF eliminator for a shot at titlist Richard Commey. It was never easy against the almost 6-foot tall Japanese battler and it made for an entertaining scrap. The referee was Harvey Dock.
Through the first three rounds, Nakatani was over performing expectations, using his jab, length, and a chopping right to subdue the attack of Lopez. Lopez, who often like to throw the lead left hook, was having to throw it from farther away and struggling to land.
Lopez adjusted in the fourth. Finding the body, he crept closer to Nakatani and started to let his hands go in more volume. A right hand scored a flash knockdown to change the momentum of the fight though Nakatani didn’t seem too hurt.
Lopez effectively took over the fight from there as he got the timing down and started to find more and more openings in the Nakatani defense. To his credit, Nakatani stayed on his game plan, jabbing and trying to use his reach to make opportunities. Lopez was winning most of the rounds but Nakatani was never far behind.
Nakatani found some of those opportunities in round ten. Landing some hard shots at close quarters, Nakatani forced an exchange and stayed with Lopez down the stretch of the round. Before the final round, the fighters embraced and Lopez had a big smile for Nakatani, a show of respect for the toughest opponent of his career to date.
They then showed each other the respect of trying to win for three more minutes, both men trying to find a finishing shot. Lopez landed more, landed harder, but couldn’t land anything to deter Nakatani down the stretch.
A satisfied crowd waited for the official verdict and it came in as expected, if a little wider than seemed correct, at 118-110 twice and 119-111. Lopez made clear after the fight that he feels ready for Commey but whether that fights happens next, or sometime next year, remains to be seen.
