Lopez Sr Attempts Damage Control After Son Says Top Rank Wants Black Fighters
Former unified lightweight champion “The Takeover” Teofimo Lopez Jr has come under heavy criticism for recent racially tinged comments regarding Top Rank Fighters. Teofimo Lopez Sr., father to The Takeover, attempted to do damage control and may have added more heat to the fire.
“If they [Top Rank] want the black fighters, they can keep them.”
Lopez went viral for that statement, and the revelation that he would be parting with Top Rank after his upcoming fight with WBO junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor.
DID TEOFIMO LOPEZ SR MAKE THINGS BETTER OR WORSE?
In an interview on MillCity Boxing, the elder Lopez explained that his son’s comments were from a place of frustration and not malice.
“We didn’t mean nothing about when my son said that Top Rank could stay with all their black fighters. Because you know what it is when Devin Haney came into Top Rank, they’re promoting him more than they’re promoting my son. He feels a little type of way.”
“They just want to promote, in his mind, the black fighters. You got Keyshawn Davis, you got Shakur Stevenson, you got Baby [Jared Anderson] . . . You got all these fighters from Top Rank that are getting more recognition than my son is getting . . . he got a lot of shit in his fucking chest.”
Lopez Sr. should have stopped there, and maybe things would have been fine. Nonetheless, he continued and ended up using a poor choice of words.
“A lot of people are going to try to put this shit like he’s racist. Bro, my son-in-law is black, you understand. My daughter got married to a black dude. I love black people, bro. We all love black people. We were raised with black people. I lived in the projects.”
In this author’s opinion, that last statement cut deep because without thinking Lopez Sr added to the stereotype often associated with black people. The notion of the ghetto being the place to encounter black people is highly offensive.
It’s understandable what he was trying to say, but Lopez Sr failed miserably at correctly explaining it.
