“The Takeover” has started.

A highly anticipated bout between Richard Commey and Teofimo Lopez ended fairly quickly as Lopez was able to stop Commey within two rounds to win the IBF lightweight championship. He improved his record to 15-0 and registered his 12th knockout of his career. Commey ended up losing his third pro fight and loses the IBF title in his second defense.

It was a fairly slow start by both fighters as they were tentative to throw their power shots in the first round. Both Commey and Lopez did land good shots before the round ended, but they were not as big as what happened next.

In the middle of the ring in the second round, the fighters threw right hands on each other. However, Lopez landed first and that halted the motion of Commey and put him down to the canvas. Referee David Fields administered the count to Commey and he was able to get up, but then Lopez blitzed him on the ropes in order to force Fields to step in and put a halt to the bout at the 2:14 mark. As a result, Lopez becomes the first fighter of Honduran descent to become a world champion.

This was an up and down 12 months for Lopez, as he started it as one of the most exciting fighters in the sport with a highlight knockout victory over Mason Menard in 2018 and wins against Diego Magdaleno, and Edis Tatli this year also by knockout. The momentum of those wins slowed down after a decision win over Masayoshi Nakatani in July where Lopez was dealing with issues outside of the ring. The 12 month stretch concludes with Lopez getting the stoppage win to become a world champion at 22 years old.

“I’m lost for words but…like the great KG said: ‘Anything is possible’,” Lopez said after scoring the victory. “It’s a blessing. It’s surreal. (Commey) is a bad man. His shot could’ve done the same to me if he hit me with that shot.”

After getting the IBF title, nothing was holding Lopez back from what he wants. “You all know who I want to fight next. 2020 is going to be a big year. ‘The Takeover’ has arrived, and you haven’t seen anything yet.”

The win sets up a unification bout between Lopez and WBO and WBA “super” champion Vasyl Lomachenko, which is planned to take place in April 2020. After having one highly anticipated bout, Lopez will be going into another one against one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. Before this fight took place, Lomachenko seemed to dismiss Lopez and say that he is unknown to the general public and that he needed to have a world title to fight him. Now with Lopez acquiring the IBF championship, Lomachenko has a challenger for next year.

Cover photo by Mikey Williams of Top Rank