Teofimo Lopez: “Me and Devin Haney Are Going to Fight!”
Being two of the undeniable stars of the lightweight division, there should be no surprise that IBF lightweight champion Teofimo “El Brooklyn” Lopez (15-0, 12 KO’s) and WBC lightweight champion “in-recess” Devin “The Dream” Haney (24-0, 15 KO’s) have maintained a good amount of friction. Each believe that they have the goods to snuff the other and both are fond of regularly relaying this to the press.
Despite their feelings of superiority, however, the thought of claiming such a prime scalp and adding the marquee name to their hit list is mutually appealing. This is the underlining reason for why they want to face one another. And to finally shut the other one up!
LA SHOWDOWN, RAIDERS TOWN
In a recent live session on his social media, Lopez took the occasion to discuss his feelings about a fight with Haney. While unveiling his thoughts, he made mention that he had a particular city and venue in mind to exchange knuckles and pain with the Dream.
“Me and Devin Haney are going to fight each other, but I want us to fight at the Allegency [Alligant] in Vegas, at the Raiders Stadium. But the thing is, he needs to fight someone with a fucking pulse and with a belt!”
WILLFUL INGORANCE
It’s good to hear that Lopez does want the fight and has even thought about it down to the specific location, although, his rationale of holding off until Haney fights someone with a pulse is less appealing. If he is needling The Dream because he secured the high profile fight with WBA “super” and WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy “Hi Tech” Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KO’s) first, then it is what it is. That just comes with the territory.
Yet, if he is plain playing blind and using past politics and maneuvering as a way of delaying this potential fight, that would be disappointing. Lopez is well aware that Haney fought his way to being named Lomachenko’s WBC mandatory challenger which is a prizefight that he was very vocal about wanting.
Therefore, it’s of no fault of Haney’s that Team Lomachenko petitioned for, and was granted, ‘Franchise champion’ status by the WBC. With this distinction, Hi-Tech was no longer burdened with the obligation to face mandatory challengers.
Ironically, the unified champion is currently in negotiations to grab the IBF title from Lopez sometime this year. If he is successful, bypassing Haney will serve as a nice trade-off and a good move for his career in the long-run.
LOPEZ’S 1-2 STEP AND SLIDE
Not only was Haney on a masterfully averted crash course with Lomachenko, at one point he was likely going to go to war with Lopez. Back in May of 2019, the WBC ordered Haney, Zaur Abdullaev, Javier Fortuna and Teofimo Lopez to fight a four man tournament. The purpose was to determine the mandatory for the winner of Lomachenko versus Luke Campbell. However, Lopez quickly withdrew from the tournament.
If asked, neither Lomachenko nor Lopez will say they were avoiding Haney, but merely doing the best thing for their career at the time. Yet, the timing is rather suspicious. To Lopez’s credit though, his whole rationale for leaving the tournament was to get the biggest fight he could. So by securing the fight with Hi-Tech, he arguably secured the biggest bout in the division.
In the end, who can be mad at that?
So first we must wait to see what happens with Lopez and Loma, then maybe…just maybe, we’ll get that Vegas dust-up El Brooklyn has been dreaming about.
Who knows, stay tuned!
By: Bakari Simpson
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