Teofimo Lopez Attacked Terence Crawford’s Welterweight Run
WBO junior welterweight champion “The Takeover” Teofimo Lopez (19-1, 13KO) has the boxing community buzzing. The Takeover criticized the resume of unified welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (40-0, 31KO).
There is no denying that Lopez is one of the big names in boxing. Yet, his comments of Top Rank focusing on black fighters and complaints of being underpaid has shone a negative spotlight on the Brooklyn, New Yorker.
CALLING HIS RESUME INTO QUESTION
The Takeover has hit the controversial button again in a recent interview with Boxing Social for his breakdown of the unified champion’s resume.
“I’m not here to play games. I want to fight the best because that is what its all about. . .the fighters that Crawford fought were handicapped, you know what I’m saying. Errol Spence just announced about his cardiac, [cataract] his eye and stuff.”
“Jose Benavidez, when he fought him, he had a shot leg. . .Kell Brook with his eye. So, every fighter that Crawford has faced throughout the 147 division. . they’ve been injured.”
A CLOSER LOOK
There is a lot to unpack here. First, Spence acknowledged that not living the fighter’s lifestyle was another reason for the Crawford loss.
In 2016, Benavidez was shot in the leg, true. However, In 2018, he had two fights before fighting Crawford and didn’t appear to be seriously hampered by the leg.
As for Brook, the argument can be made that he was a shot fighter when he faced the unified champion. Yet, his eye injuries were on two separate occasions in 2016 and 2017. The Brit didn’t fight Crawford until 2020, by then the eye was fine.
It’s funny that Lopez neglected to mention Jeff Horn, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, David Avanesyan, and Shawn Porter. In addition, fans could say Lopez defeated an injured Vasyl Lomachenko, who had to have shoulder surgery following their match.
It will be interesting to see what Bud will say about a fellow stablemate attacking his accomplishments.
