Teddy Atlas disagrees with Rolly Romero vs Teofimo Lopez scorecards

Teofimo Lopez became a three-division world champion when he overcame Rolando Romero last weekend to capture the WBA welterweight title, and well-regarded trainer, commentator and fight analyst Teddy Atlas has publicly declared his disapproval of the scoring in the contest.

Romero had not fought since winning the vacant belt against Ryan Garcia last May and thus stepped through the ropes off the back of 15 months of inactivity when tasked with Lopez in Las Vegas.

That ring rust may have proved decisive on the night, as Lopez claimed a majority-decision victory to become a world champion in a third weight class. Although most observers felt Lopez deserved a comfortable unanimous decision, Romero surprisingly believed he had done enough to retain his title.

On his YouTube channel, The Fight with Teddy Atlas, the former Mike Tyson coach dismissed any suggestion that Romero deserved the win, instead praising judge Tim Cheatham, who scored the bout 116-112 in favour of the challenger.

“When I think that something is wrong, I call it out, even to my detriment on my own network I say, ‘we did this wrong, we didn’t put a good fight on, we overhyped this guy or this judge was terrible,’. 

“I have often gone after Tim Cheatham, I have gone after him many times and, I think, rightfully so – and this time I am going to applaud him, I am going to lift him up, he got it right. He is my new idol!”

Continuing, Atlas then went on to declare that, if he were in charge, he would be having a stern word with judge Glenn Feldman, whose scorecard read as a 114-114 draw, believing that Feldman should have his licence taken away.

“I would call him [Feldman] in on Monday morning and say, ‘come into my office, we are going to watch the fight and you are going to explain [how this fight was a draw] to me, before I take your licence away, before I sit you down, before I suspend you,’.

“If you drive bad, if you crash your car, your licence gets taken away.”

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Lopez is now eyeing up a unification clash with WBC titleholder Ryan Garcia if he comes through Conor Benn unscathed in two weeks, but it remains to be seen whether ‘The Takeover’ will first be made to defend his title against supposed mandatory challenger, Jack Catterall.