Barboza Jr. defeats Saucedo; Lopez unifies lightweight titles

Alex Saucedo's road to another world title shot took a detour Saturday night inside the MGM Grand bubble in Las Vegas.

The Oklahoma City junior welterweight suffered his second professional loss, falling to the Arnold Barboza Jr. by unanimous decision.

“This was like a championship fight to me," said Barboza Jr. (25-0, 10 KOs). "... I want a championship fight. No more messing around. No more tune-up fights.”

Saucedo (30-2, 19 KOs) knocked down Barboza in the seventh round but landed far fewer punches in the 10-round bout that served as the warmup act for the world lightweight unification fight between Vasiliy Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez.

In the main event, Lopez dominated early and finished strong to win a unanimous 12-round decision over Lomachenko to unify the lightweight titles.

Lopez took ad vantage of a slow start by Lomachenko to build up an early lead, then finished the fight with a big 12th round that left Lomachenko bloodied and beaten on the scorecards. The 23- year-old from Brooklyn became the unified lightweight champion and managed to do what few in boxing thought he could do outbox perhaps the best technician in boxing.

Lopez (16-0) added the three titles held by Lomachenko (15-2) to the belt he won last year to become the undisputed 135-champion.

Lopez was favored 119109, 117-111 and 116-112 on ringside scorecards in about held without fans at the MGM Grand conference center. The Associated Press had Lopez winning 117-111.