Teofimo Lopez flip-flops…again
On December 14, 2019, Teofimo “Take Over” Lopez (16-0, 12 KO’s) defeated Richard “RC” Commey (30-3, 27 KO’s) to become the IBF World Lightweight champion. Ten months later, Take Over toppled Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KO’s) to pick up the WBA and WBO World Lightweight straps. Since becoming a unified champion, Lopez has remained completely erratic when voicing who he wants next. Not only does he not maintain a consistent target opponent, he even fluctuates in the division he wants to compete in.
In his first fight since losing to Lopez, Richard Commey was stepping in the ring against Jackson Marinez. While still preparing in his dressing room, Take Over went to wish Commey good luck with his fight. Also while in attendance, the unified champion supplied an interview for the ESPN broadcast. During this interview however, the cocky titlist pulled a 180º turn on his next-fight talking points.
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It has long been known that he must face his IBF mandatory challenger George Kambosos (19-0, 10 KO’s). Lopez has made no effort to conceal that he does not want this fight but cannot shake his obligation. Recently, he said that if given his choice he would fight WBC World Lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (25-0, 15 KO’s) next. Now, in the ESPN sit-down, the Take Over resumed his stance about wanting to exit the division. Even worse, he once again began disparaging all the top names that the fans want to see him fight.
“Who do I want to fight? Right now, I am staying at 135 for now just so I can wait and see the winner of [Jose] Ramirez and [Josh] Taylor. And I’ll be going out there for the glory of becoming the undisputed back to back at 140 and 135.”
“[in regards to Ryan Garcia] They are famous on the internet, I am real-life hot. So they got to get their weight up, they not fighting anybody, all of them! Half of Devin Haney’s career has been in Mexico, he’s been fighting cab drivers. [Gervonta] Tank Davis has been fighting 122, 126 pounders, next! What’s next?”
It is sad and frustrating to continue to listen to Lopez ping-pong on what his next desired move is. It is also irritating to hear him insist that he is the “undisputed” lightweight champion. This is because even the Take Over himself will admit that a staggering amount of fight fans do not recognize him as undisputed champion. This is due to Devin Haney owning the last belt needed.
So why he stands so hard on his undisputed status while openly acknowledging his disputed status is a mystery to this scribe. Regardless of his near schizophrenic interviews, let us just hope that Lopez takes on one the many available opponents that the fans want to see!
By: Bakari Simpson
