The 135 pound division has a new star on the rise and it is Brooklyn's Teofimo Lopez (11-0, 9 KO's) from New York. After getting two knockouts in his last three fights, the undefeated Lopez landed such a huge right hand in the first round, that he had Mason Menard (34-4, 24 KO's) out on his feet, before he landed face down on the canvas.
The lightweight division right now is full of some of the best and most exciting fighters in boxing, which includes Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KO's), Jose Pedraza (25-2, 12 KO's) and Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KO's). The overrated Lomachenko did win his fight on the same night as Lopez, but he did not look good against the 42-1 underdog Pedraza. The question is why isn't Lomachenko fighting against Mikey Garcia, the best in the 135 lb. division? It's obvious.
After Garcia, the most exciting fighter in the lightweight division is none other than Teofimo Lopez.
In this eleventh fight of his young career, the twenty one year old Lopez TKO'd Menard at the 2:23 of the first round. And after the fight he said
"The Takeover’ has begun. In 2019, I will be a world champion. That’s a guarantee.”