Teofimo Lopez is still talking in circles
In the ring, on October Saturday 17, welterweight boxer Mikey Garcia suffered a detrimental upset loss to the little known Spaniard Sandor Martin. Outside of the ring, in the audience, unified lightweight champion Teofimo “Take Over” Lopez (16-0, 12 KO’s) and WBC 135-pound champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (26-0 15 KO’s) went nose-to-nose. The two barked at one another about how the other was fraudulent. The Dream has made no secret that he wants to face Lopez in a prizefight that would unite all the titles. Depending on the day you catch him, the Take Over can be interested in the bout as well.
While in the audience for the Garcia versus Martin fight, Lopez was in the mood for evasion and non-commitment…again. When grilled about his thoughts on Haney, Lopez generally fluctuates from saying: ‘why fight Haney? He’s the email champion,’ ‘sure I’ll fight him next, no problem,’ ‘he’s pricing himself out,’ and then there is the general gibberish about him being undisputed and not needing Haney, whatsoever. On October 17, when caught in the lens of Boxing Social’s camera, Lopez flip-flopped between “sure, I’d fight,” and “why should I,” all in the same breath.
“Of course, I would love to fight him but it’s up to those guys if they want to fight…I look at it like it this: I enjoy what I do. For the belt that he fought for, quote unquote the WBC vacant, it was a guy that he fought that was 58th ranked. Not in the top 20, not in the top 30, not even in the top 50’s. You know, so what does that say? Every fighter that I’ve faced has been at least in the top twenty.”
IS HE EASY WORK OR NOT?!
This scatterbrained and wholly contradictory statement is what has become the typical response from Team Lopez. In a reply that began with him saying 100% he wants to fight Devin Haney ends with him ridiculing him as an opponent on the grounds of his resume. The inherent irony about it is no one cares that the Dream has a thin resume.
For those with eyes, it’s undeniable that he is a top talent and would probably make a totally entertaining scrap if he shared a ring with the Take Over. For those with nothing but hate, they would love to see Haney violently concussed and silenced in the ring. Either way, even the most dedicated Lopez fan has some invested interest in that fight. Not to mention finally establishing the true undisputed champion of the division which should delight all true fans of the sport.
ONE FIGHT FIRST
Even if the Take Over earnestly believed that he is undisputed, he’s no doubt god awful tired of being interrogated about if he thinks he really is. And the easiest way to solve that enigma is to dance with Haney. Granted Devin Haney is the bite-sized Lunchable of a snack that Lopez swears he is, it shouldn’t be that big a deal to get handled then. Right? Well apparently not!
While this is another juicy installment of their on-going beef, there is nothing much that should come of it immediately. Technically, Teofimo Lopez has an upcoming bout with George Kambosos but the promoters have shifted that fight date more times than plastic surgeons have altered Lil Kim’s nose and cheek bones. Said to say, we’ll just have to wait and see when this fight actually takes place. Similarly, Haney has his heart set on an early December date although he has no concrete opponent set. He is hopeful that he can secure a dustup with Joseph Diaz.
Diaz recently became available after Ryan Garcia backed out of their upcoming duel as the result of an alleged injury. Assuming both of those fights take place, and Haney and Lopez are victorious, then we can resume worrying about them fighting each other. Until that time, this is just another fun pastime for boxing nuts.
By: Bakari Simpson
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