New York, NY–The time arrived for what die hard boxing fans of New York’s concrete jungle came far and wide to witness, Top Rank’s main event. Brooklyn’s own Teofimo Lopez against Spain’s Sandor Martin in a ten round showdown on Heisman Trophy night that would later leave fans questioning its outcome.
In round one, Lopez jumped into high gear going hype mode on Martin with shots to the body and chin but it quickly took a turn when both fighters aiming for power shots resulted in heads colliding, Martin being cut on the bridge of his nose and Lopez dropping to his knee after throwing a short right hook to the waist of Martin with referee Ricky Gonzalez counting it as a knockdown in the second.
Things intensified in the third with Martin taking the lead challenging the orthodox southpaw fighter with his left hand landing on the twenty-five year old Brooklyn native then both trading hooks with Lopez missing two body shots and Martin dripping blood now out of his nose.
Lopez bounced back lunging at times towards the twenty-nine year old vet continuing his barrage assault of punches in rounds four through six delivering more power punches, jabs, and body shots per CompuBox numbers but Martin had that brawler stance keeping his grit in control not showing signs of breathing issues and stepping in with counterpunches. The two stood toe to toe exchanging gut wrenching blows at the end of round six receiving a roar of satisfaction from fans.
Despite Martin going the distance and sturdy right hook to the back of the head of Lopez bringing him down a second time making Lopez himself question “Do I still got it” only to have it ruled as a slip wasn’t enough for “Arrasandor” to make it a clean sweep. The judges went to the cards and after a ten round bout the winner by split decision surprisingly was Teofimo “The Takeover” Lopez (17-1-0).
Receiving mixed emotions from spectators following the announcement, Martin (40-3-0) in disagreement, exchanged words with Lopez defending his take on the fight “I punch you every time”. The bold Brooklynite gave his contentious response, “This is not how you entertain bro. Every time you committed, I countered and I hit you. That’s why you were running”.
And on the perspective of his performance, “We got a lot to work on. But first off, I want to thank God for this, no matter what it was. I apologize to everybody tonight. This is not how we perform”.
The Co-Main event Jared Anderson (13-0-0) vs Jerry Forrest (26-5-2) had a interesting start with the Toledo, Ohio native making his grand entrance entertaining fans in a grinch costume. His comical swag carried into the ring but faded in the first round when VA’s Forrest showed he was focused landing several hard jabs and left hooks on the heavyweight powerhouse waking his inner beast.
Anderson snapped back to reality unleashing his wrath on Forrest backing him in the corner with non-stop upper cuts and body shots clearly sending him in a daze waiting on the bell as his saving grace. Round two took off just the same with Anderson nailing Forrest against the corner ropes firing off right power jabs to the chin and head sealing the win at 1:34 left in the second.
