Bob Arum Confirms That Teofimo Lopez is Moving to 140
Since suffering his first professional loss, former unified lightweight champion Teofimo “Take Over” Lopez (16-1, 12 KO’s) has been quiet as a mute church mouse. Back on November 27, 2021, Lopez was the heavy favorite to school his confident Australian challenger George Kambosos. The fight initially was not given a mountain of attention due to Kambosos’s limited fan appeal in the states. Despite its easily dismissed announcement, the fight would go on to garner a great deal of attention.
After conspiring with Team Kambosos to push the bout to a purse bid, the rights to their prizefight were secured by Triller. This was newsworthy because of the whooping six million dollar bid that Triller won it with. The fight would go on to have more postponements than the Fast & Furious franchise has sequels. When the two combatants did finally meet, Kambosos used Lopez’s own over-aggression against him to win a well-earned split decision in rather thrilling fashion.
TIME FOR A CHANGE
Naturally, Take Over has a plethora of motivations to return to lightweight. First and foremost, he could attempt getting revenge on Kambosos and recapturing his belts. Once done, he could finally face WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney to actually become the undisputed champion. He has erroneously claimed undisputed status since his duel with Vasiliy Lomachenko. Despite all, these two career defining fights, and more, Take Over has insisted that he is moving up.
Some may find this declaration hard to believe. The former world champion and his father, Teofimo Lopez Sr., who serves as his chief second, have threatened to move up for more than a year now. By the same token, Take Over insisted repeatedly that he would face Haney “next” only to flip-flop on the notion just as regularly. Yet, now his promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, is co-co-signing the same story.
“He didn’t go about getting down in weight the way he should have. He got dehydrated, he had problems with his lungs and the esophagus and he almost died…I’ll meet with him and his father and no more 135 pounds and fight at 140.”
WHEN AND WHERE?
Let’s just see if Team Lopez and Top Rank are true to their word and actually start campaigning at super lightweight. If they do make the leap, it will also be very interesting to see who Take Over stages his premiere fight against. Will he go for a soft touch or target a meaningful threat out the gate?
Team Lopez has oddly been screaming into every working microphone they can find that they want undisputed super lightweight champion Josh Taylor. It’s odd because Taylor rejected the notion of this fight whenever presented with it. So, who Lopez does dance with will be very revealing.
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By: Bakari Simpson
