SPORTSCLOPEDIA 52: TEOFIMO LOPEZ DEFEATS JOSH TAYLOR, DENVER NUGGETS WIN FIRST NBA TITLE, MUNGIA WINS OVER DEREVYANCHENKO
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 14 Jun 2023
Teófimo López defeated Josh Taylor who defended his World Boxing Organization (WBO) and The Ring light welterweight titles on June 10, 2023 at the Hulu Theater in New York City. Taylor lost by unanimous decision, 115-113, 115-113 and 117-111. Lopez, age 25 of Brooklyn, New York, U.S., now has held world championships in two weight classes, including the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Ring magazine light welterweight titles and the unified World Boxing Association (WBA) Super title, International Boxing Federation (IBF), WBO, and Ring magazine lightweight titles between 2019 and 2021. As an amateur, he represented Honduras at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In 20 fights, Lopez has 19 wins, 1 loss with 13 knockouts
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Josh Taylor, age 32 of Prestonpans, Scotland, is a former undisputed super lightweight champion, having held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super version) titles between 2019 and 2022, the World Boxing Council (WBC) title between 2021 and 2022, the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) title between 2021 and 2023 and the Ring magazine title between 2019 and 2023. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth light-welterweight title from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur, he won a lightweight silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and light-welterweight gold in 2014. Taylor now has an identical record with Lopez, in 20 fights, he has 19 wins, 1 loss with 13 knockouts.
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The Denver Nuggets grabbed the long-sought NBA title after a hard-fought Game 5, with a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat at their homecourt at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Monday night. After two well-executed victories in Miami, the Nuggets took a commanding 3-1 lead going back home in front of their fans whom they never failed. The Denver Nuggets team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a franchise of the defunct American Basketball Association (ABA) but changed their name to Denver Rockets before the first season began. The Rockets then changed their name again to the Nuggets in 1974. The Nuggets played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets.
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The team qualified for the ABA playoffs in all seasons from 1967 to the 1976 ABA playoffs where they lost in the finals. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA–NBA merger and entered the NBA playoffs in nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and ten consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2013. In 2023, the Nuggets, led by Nikola Jokić, reached their first NBA Finals and defeated the Miami Heat to capture the franchise's first NBA championship. The Nuggets became the last of the four surviving former ABA teams to reach the NBA Finals. The four ABA teams who joined the NBA were the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs. Only the Pacers failed to win an NBA title.
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A ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate happened as Jaime Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) won against the former world title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs) at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. Munguía, age 26 of Tijuana, Mexico, held the WBO junior middleweight title from 2018 to 2019. Derevyanchenko, age 37 of Feodosia, Ukraine, has challenged three times for world middleweight titles, the IBF title in 2018, the IBF and IBO titles in 2019, and the WBC title in 2020. Their fight was for the vacant WBC Silver super middleweight title.
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Munguía defeated American Sadam Ali on May 12, 2018 for the WBO junior middleweight title. In his first defense on July 21, 2018, Munguía scored a unanimous decision victory over former light middleweight champion Liam Smith, knocking Smith down in the sixth round. Then he scored a third-round technical knockout victory against Brandon Cook on the undercard of Canelo Álvarez vs Gennady Golovkin II on September 15, 2018 for another successful defense. On April 13, 2019, Munguía defended his title against mandatory challenger Dennis Hogan and won by majority decision. He made the fifth defense of his title when he defeated Patrick Allotey by fourth-round technical knockout on September 14, 2019 in Carson, California. Munguía then vacated his WBO light middleweight title as he moved up to middleweight to face Gary O'Sullivan on January 11, 2020, winning by an eleventh-round technical knockout.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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