Teofimo Lopez Openly Ducks Devin Haney
In his latest act of self-sabotage, WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo “The Takeover” Lopez (22-1, 13 KO’s) turned down a massive payday. And the handsome purse was to face his long-time rival, Devin “The Dream” Haney (32-0, 15 KO’s). Despite the seemingly perfect opportunity to tangle with his years-long adversary, Lopez decided to serve a litany of tapioca-soft excuses.
Let Lopez tell it, he is unwilling to travel to Saudi Arabia, where the fight would be staged, for fear of being cheated on the scorecards due to Haney’s Muslim religion. In his estimation, the whole fight is being slanted in Haney’s favor and the promotion would also favor him. He also said that Haney, a two-division undisputed champion, had not done enough in the sport. Admittedly, these are somewhat odd reasons for avoidance.
Although, neither the abnormal reaction nor seeming refusal to fight should come as a surprise. In all actuality, Team Lopez has been moving the goal post to challenge Haney for about five years. For example, his chief second, Teofimo Lopez Sr, famously demanded $20 million dollars to square off with The Dream.
SAME SONG, SAME DANCE
It is also rather glaring that The Takeover routinely bellyaches about receiving lackluster paydays and being the lowest earner of his big-time contemporaries. This is why it’s so puzzling that he vigorously persists in his sidestepping of Haney. At this point, it has become intensely difficult to form a rationalization of why The Takeover continues in this manner that does not involve fear. So much so that even Lopez realizes that many will view this as a duck.
“Fuck the Haney’s bro, fuck them! Fuck them! I am not going to help them when they are helping themselves trying to keep their son in the loop! Fuck them! Y’all can call at it as it is, call me a duck, I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care. It’s a business move and this business move will show in the light very soon.”
ENOUGH TALK ALREADY!
Lopez needs to explain how a team looking out for their fighter is a negative. Furthermore, how does being a part of a big promotion or winning, especially as the underdog, set back one’s progress? Truthfully speaking, Teofimo Lopez is in the full-time business of embarrassing himself.
It really is rather exhausting. Yet, for his sake, hopefully Lopez does have a great dance partner up his sleeve. In case he doesn’t, the fallout for ducking Haney, taking less money and fighting a lesser opponent will not bode well for him!
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