Lopez beat Rolando “Rolly” Romero by majority decision to become the WBA 147-pound titleholder on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The card streamed on DAZN PPV, as part of the DAZN Ultimate Plan, and on Amazon Prime PPV. Here are five takeaways from the Lopez-Romero card.

With his back against the wall, Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs) has risen to deliver in the moment on multiple occasions.

He did it again, bouncing back from his unanimous decision defeat to Shakur Stevenson nearly seven months ago by beating Romero, though, it wasn’t necessarily a statement-making performance. The Brooklyn, New York native even acknowledged as much in his post-fight interview, saying he still has some work to do.

The 29-year-old Lopez looked far better having to push forward and let his hands go more compared to previous fights, but Romero helped his case by being reluctant to push and largely staying on the move.

Romero wasn’t without his moments, either. He buckled Lopez with an overhand right in the fifth round and appeared to hurt him again at the very end of the seventh with a left hook.

Could Lopez find success being as aggressive as he was if he was facing Devin Haney? What would have happened if Ryan Garcia caught Lopez?

Hopefully those questions don’t go unanswered with the trio now holding welterweight world titles, leading perfectly into the next takeaway.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a division with bigger unification bouts than at welterweight.

Haney (33-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), The Ring’s No. 8 pound-for-pound fighter and No. 1 at welterweight, holds the WBO title.

Garcia, rated No. 5 by The Ring at 147 pounds, is the WBC champion. Lopez is now firmly in the mix with the WBA belt in tow.

Any way you slice it, there are significant unification bouts waiting to happen should Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) get past Conor Benn (25-1, 14 KOs) on September 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

A Garcia-Haney rematch is one of boxing's biggest fights. Their rivalry has been well documented, with Garcia’s failed drug test turning his majority decision victory over Haney in April 2024 into a no-contest.

Lopez has been close to facing Haney before, though talks fell through. He called for Haney to fight him for undisputed, assuming both can unify in the meantime, while Lopez-Garcia also creates intrigue.

Either way, a 147-pound division that was recently one of boxing’s weakest weight classes among the very top now has much more juice.

Romero (17-3, 13 KOs) has every right to be upset with losing what turned out to be a close decision, though, it felt like Lopez won much more definitively than the official scorecards showed (we’ll get to that later).

However, the person he should most be upset with is himself. After a 15-month layoff following his Garcia scalp, Romero finally got the big fight he was looking for in Lopez.

He ultimately squandered it by averaging just 29 punches thrown per round, per CompuBox. Of the 12 rounds, he landed five punches or fewer in seven, including just two punches in the final round.

It wasn’t like Romero didn’t have big moments, either. The Las Vegas native visibly hurt Lopez twice, but did little to build on the momentum he had.

Romero spent the majority of the fight on his back foot or moving around the ring. Had he just stepped on the gas a little more in a couple of rounds, especially given what the final scorecards were, he could have nabbed a career-best win.

Now, it’s back to the drawing board again, and if he had trouble landing fights as a world champion, who knows what the future will hold for him in pursuit of a return to the titlte picture.

Yoenli Hernandez has been heralded as the middleweight division's boogeyman. His majority decision victory over Francisco Veron wasn’t of that ilk, but the kind of fight that’ll certainly benefit him in the long run.

Cuba's Hernandez (11-0, 9 KOs) displayed his impressive arsenal on offense, but Veron’s toughness allowed him to withstand the onslaught. Argentina's stubborn Veron (17-2-1, 10 KOs) even connected with a left hook that appeared to rock Hernandez late in the fifth round.

While it was clear Hernandez, The Ring’s No. 2 middleweight, did enough to win a decision, his 27-year-old adversary provided the kind of resistance needed at this juncture.

The 29-year-old maximizes his unorthodox attack and ability to punch while stepping through range, though occasionally, as he’s switching stances, he can get reckless. Against tougher opposition who can exploit his defensive deficiencies or when he’s out of position, that habit could prove costly.

With Hernandez ranked No. 1 by the WBA, WBO and No. 2 by the WBC, a world title shot could be next. If he can dial it back just a bit and fight with more caution and intent, he could become even scarier.

One shouldn’t be surprised when judges give head-scratching scorecards, but for that to be the case in three of the four fights on a PPV card is unexplainable.

It started in the first fight, which Carlos Utria won by split decision against Israel Mercado. The fight could have gone either way, but Mercado’s late rally made it close.

Instead Patricia Morse Jarmon, who scored it 97-93 for Utria (15-0, 11 KOs) and Chris Migliore, who had it 96-94 for him, gave the Colombian rounds six through nine on their scorecards.

Steve Weisfeld, who scored it 96-94 for Mercado (13-2-2, 7 KOs), had him sweeping the final three rounds.

Weisfeld was the outlier for Hernandez-Veron, scoring it a draw. He gave Veron rounds three through seven, then had Hernandez winning the final three rounds to even up his scorecard.

Hernandez outlanded Veron 200-to-105 in total punches and 122-to-45 in power shots. He also more than doubled Veron as far as punches landed in rounds three and four.

Glenn Feldman, who scored Lopez-Romero 114-114, gave the defending champion the first five rounds on his scorecard, then gave Lopez rounds six through 10. He scored the 11th round for Romero, then gave Lopez the final round to make it a draw. De Luca’s scorecard wasn’t much better, giving Romero four of the first five.

Lopez ultimately swept the final three rounds to win 115-113 on De Luca’s scorecard.

It’s a belabored point in boxing, but bad scorecards should always be called out until something is done about it.

Boxers put their lives on the line for themselves and their families, with a simple formula. Victory moves you onto bigger fighters and better opportunities, meaning more money; if you lose, the opposite effect.

That formula doesn’t exist for judges. It’s nauseating that they can negatively influence the trajectory of a fighter’s career with incompetent scorecards without having to explain what they saw.