Lopez picked up the WBA welterweight title and became a three-division champion after losing to Shakur Stevenson in January.

Judges scored the fight 116-112, 115-113 and 114-114, and the result was a lot tighter than Lopez and others imagined it would be.

"I think for me, it was getting in the ring to show that I was a winner and a champion after everything that we've endured," Lopez said during his post-fight press conference. "I put up tonight. I didn't shut up.

"I don't think he threw a lot of punches to win, and even that one judge made it a majority decision."

Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs) quieted his critics and muted Romero's offense for most of the night outside of a turbulent 80-second stretch in the fifth round in which he was cut on his right eyebrow before nearly getting dropped with a rocket of a right hand from Romero.

"In the fifth round, when I did get hit, I just told myself, 'No, you're going to have to do a lot more than that to take me out,'" Lopez said.

"He brought out a younger, angry version of me that none of you know. I said, 'No, this is going to be a fight. You're going to take me out tonight if you're going to want to get this win over me.'

"I think I did enough to win every round, honestly. Some would say that fifth round, but even when Rolly tried to follow through, I just moved around a little bit, used my defense, clinched, and even caught him in the exchange to make him think about it like, 'I'm still here. I'm still a live dog.'

"You either have it, or you don't … I was not hurt enough. I could take a shot. I really can. You have to know how to play the roles, bounce, move your legs. Some people, when they get hit hard, they forget their legs. You have to take that with you."

Lopez was also unsurprised that Romero (17-3, 13 KOs) wasn't more offensive-minded even after having a brief moment of tremendous success.

"[His output was low] because I was hitting him back, plain and simple," Lopez said. "I was waiting for the exchanges, and he knows that I'm very quick and I'm very fast with my shots. But at the same time, I'm very selective. I was tagging that body a lot.

"If Rolly didn't want to engage, we focused on at least hitting his arms and his stomach throughout the rounds, and that's what slowed him down mainly, and that's what made us win the fight tonight.

"I just got in his head … and I was focused more on hitting his body more than his head."

Of the 124 shots that Lopez landed, 56 were to the body of Romero.

Romero landed a total of 73 shots, with just 16 to the body of Lopez, according to CompuBox. Lopez was also the busier fighter, credited with throwing 530 punches, which was 178 more than Romero.

Romero called for a rematch after the fight, but Lopez is already looking for more meaningful title unification matchups as he chases undisputed champion status.

"Rolly didn't really do that much tonight [to earn a rematch]," Romero said.

"My father said, 'Watch, when he hits you, he's going to wake you up’ – and that's exactly what happened tonight."