Teofimo Lopez knows that boxing fans are salivating, as they eagerly await his unification clash against Vasiliy Lomachenko.
All the belts, all the hype and all the fanfare. With both Lopez and Loma being promoted by Bob Arum‘s Top Rank, there shouldn’t be any problem making the fight, right?
Wrong. According to Lopez, he seems concerned that Lomachenko may back out or simply wait for Lopez to be too big to fight at 135 pounds–which, according to Lopez himself, could be pretty soon.
“We’re just trying to see that this guy doesn’t back out,” said Lopez via “At the Fights” on SiriusXM. “My thing is really that–don’t back out. Let me talk my sh-t and I want you to feel it and I want you to not back the f–k out. Because everybody wants to see this fight happen.”
Lopez is a big 135 pounder, so it’s not surprising that the longer COVID-19 continues to have the majority of the sports world on pause, the less likely Loma-Lopez becomes.
“I can’t promise you guys anything,” said Lopez. “I do want the Loma fight, but as this pandemic keeps on going, it’s just making that fight slowly fading away. And I think they’re waiting on it, though. That’s the sh-t, and I hate it. They’re waiting on it. They’re waiting for me. They know I can’t make this weight no more. They know I can’t make the weight. They know I can’t make the weight no more.”
135 pounds is super enticing because of the unification bout that can take place right now between Lopez and Loma, but 140 pounds also could produce some mega fights down the road with fellow youngsters like Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia–if and when they’re ready to move up.
And just in case Lopez’s clash against Loma never happens, he’s already heating things up by firing shots at Haney and Garcia.
“Devin Haney isn’t even the real WBC champion,” said Lopez in a recent interview with Crystina Poncher. “If we fight, we fight in Vegas because he [Haney] obviously has a huge fan base out there in Vegas.” “Ryan Garcia has the fan base, not the skills, but the fan base like Oscar De La Hoya did.”
Of course, for those fights to mean anything financially, fans will have to wait as each fighter continues to build his brand and status outside the ring.
If Lopez can somehow pull off fights against Loma, Haney and Garcia, he’ll be revered by boxing fans–win, lose or draw.
