Arnold Barboza Jr Pins Hopes on Fighting Teofimo Lopez Next
When former unified lightweight champion Teofimo “The Takeover” Lopez (17-1, 13 KO’s) staged his last match, super lightweight fighter Arnold Barboza Jr (27-0, 10 KO’s) made it his business to be in attendance. This is due to Lopez seeking to establish himself in the 140-pound division in a duel against Pedro Campa. Yet it should go without saying that Barboza, who is ranked #3 (WBO) and #11 (WBC), was unimpressed with the selection and the performance. This is mainly do to the fact that Barboza wanted the fight for himself.
In fact, when Lopez was initially forging plans to make the jump up in weight, Barboza was one of the opponents being looked at. Had the Californian been chosen, then The Takeover would have been given far more credit than he was for facing the wildly unknown and unranked Campa. Now, as he told Fight Hype, Barboza Jr. feels that it’s still looking shaky to get the call for The Takeover’s next showdown in December.
“We’re not sure yet, there have not been any talks or anything, but hopefully! That’s the plan, that’s what we want. I don’t necessarily think that he wants that fight, but I think it’s the only fight that makes sense for him right now, and me as well. So, I hope that they put the pressure on him to take the fight.”
TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
Lopez has made no secret of the fact that he wants to fight for a title as quickly as possible. The Takeover has already called out unified super lightweight champion Josh Taylor, Jose Zepeda and Regis Prograis. Barring a minor miracle though, Lopez is not going to get any of these fights next. Taylor has already stated that he has every intention of staging a rematch with Jack Catterall. Likewise, the WBC has given Zepeda and Prograis until August 30 to negotiate a fight deal.
With this being the case, once again, Barboza does easily remain as one of The Takeover’s best options in the division. He is well-known, a serious threat and well-ranked. Despite all of this, sadly Barboza is not confident that the fight will take place.
“I think that Pedro Campa was the perfect opponent for him and I just don’t think he will take it. It’s too much of a dangerous fight for him, I just think that he is going to try to jump up to fight for a belt. But in reality there are very few people who are going to fight him, so there is no other fight that makes sense right now, other than me, to be honest.
“[…] We talked to some people and that is the objective, but the thing is we tried this before and I don’t know, he was just playing games. That’s why I was so inactive for so long because I was waiting for him. But I am not going to wait anymore!”
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Bakari Simpson
Be the first to comment