Teofimo Lopez crushes Edis Tatli in fifth with Body Shot

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Teofimo Lopez took a little longer than most people expected Saturday night.

In the fifth round, however, Lopez blasted Edis Tatli with a body shot that put an end to their 12-round lightweight fight at Madison Square Garden. Lopez's 21-year-old, fast-paced punch left the huge outsider unable to continue on the underlying card Terence Crawford-Amir Khan.

Finland's Tatli knelt down and his gloves when Lopez's punch landed on the exposed left side of his body. Umpire Ron Lipton counted up to 10 before a temporarily immobilized Tatli could even attempt to get up.

The official time of the stop was 1:32 of the fifth lap. Tatli, 31, lost by knockout for the first time in his career and slipped to 31-3 (10 KO).

"It was not our best camp, but we have always come out victorious," said Lopez, who progressed to 13-0 and recorded his 11th knockout.

When ESPN's Bernardo Osuna asked Lopez in the ring why his training camp for this fight was not ideal, he said, "I prefer not to say. We will just go back to the drawing board. "

Lopez had three laps, most of the time missing at Tatli, but he finally started to hurt himself to the right in the fourth round. A straight on the side of Tatli's head moved Tatli into the ropes and had Lopez unloaded on him.

When the bell rang to end the fourth round, Tatli awkwardly kissed Lopez as they headed to their corners.

Tatli landed a right-left combination towards the end of the third lap. Lopez quickly returned to land right and left on Tatli's body.

Tatli is well protected again in the second round. Lopez let his hands go past the last minute of the second round, but he did not hurt Tatli with any of his shots.

Lopez caught Tatli with a left on the body midway through the first lap. Tatli especially did a good job of keeping Lopez from firing in the first round, though.

Keith Idec is a senior writer / columnist for BoxingScene.com. You can contact him on Twitter @ Idecboxing.