Teofimo Lopez Says Outside Pressure Jeopardized his Health in Kambosos Fight
Former unified lightweight champion “The Takeover” Teofimo Lopez (16-1, 12KOs) is looking to bounce back in a new division after suffering the first defeat to unified champion George “Ferocious” Kambosos (20-0, 10KOs). Lopez later revealed having issues with his Asthma prior to the fight, but says he defeated himself by allowing outside influences.
The Takeover seemed to have done just that after defeating three-divisional champion Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko. However, his career went from the highest height to a quick low point in his life. The unified champion had to make a mandatory defense against Ferocious, and the only hiccup was the fight went to purse bid after failure to reach a financial agreement with Top Rank.
Newcomer Triller Fight Club won the purse bid, and things went downhill from this point. The fight got canceled a multitude of times for various reasons until the rights to host the fight were moved to DAZN under Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn.
YOU LIVE AND YOU LEARN
Kambosos shocked the entire boxing community with the victory. During an interview with The Good Fight with Kate Abdo, Lopez was asked if he should have canceled the fight considering all the health issues, and he laid blame on himself for allowing the outside world to get to him
“It was a good, well-taught lesson for me. Because of my ego, I beat me that night. No one else could beat Teofimo but me, and not that I just called that on me.”
“I allowed others, the outside world, and everything else to get to me in the sense of the pressure. You know they postponed my fights so many times, I mean it was ridiculous. I don’t even know why it didn’t come in my mind to just let that belt go.”
“My father did, he called it, he told me to go to the hospital […] but, I knew that people were going to talk about it, Teofimo is ducking and this and that. I just get annoyed of how many times do I have to prove myself to let everyone know no one ducks here on this side.”
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By: Garrisson Bland
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