Teofimo Lopez Jnr had a principally quiet yr defending his WBO junior welterweight crown towards Jamaine Ortiz and Steve Claggett. Come 2025, nonetheless, Lopez needs to stay as much as his nickname of “The Takeover” as soon as once more by being concerned in big-time fights.
To arrange for the event, Lopez, 21-1 (13 KOs), lately linked up with Eddy Reynoso, including Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s head coach and lifelong confidant to help his father and career-long coach Teofimo Snr.
Throughout a coaching session this week in San Diego, Lopez cleared the air on a sequence of potential matchups towards Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Terence Crawford and others.
“I waited per week for Group Haney to reply and so they by no means did – we provided them a very good, affordable supply of $2.4 million assured and a 55-45 cut up on pay-per-view on the Crypto.com Enviornment in Los Angeles,” Lopez informed Constantino Garcia of Little Large Boxing. “You wasted my time. You wasted my time too many instances. I needed to air it out. I used to be informed to remain radio silent whereas we have been attempting to barter. However I needed to.
“Proper now, Ryan doesn’t have a struggle. He is in the identical type of predicament I am in. I will name Oscar [De La Hoya] later to see what’s up. Every part has to make sense. It might’t be wishful pondering and let’s simply make a struggle. We now have to present them one thing to be concerned with. I attempt to play it honest as greatest as I can because the king of the division at 140 kilos.
“Crawford, cease being a bitch, yo, and make the struggle at 154 kilos. C’mon, care for this younger child. Get me out of the ring. Get me out and put me in a stretcher. All people simply be speaking. And to all people, cease ducking Teofimo. C’mon. He at all times fights the most effective. The place are you guys at? We’ll see who needs it. However, actually, fuck all of them.”
Lopez additionally provided an replace on how coaching has been going up to now with Reynoso.
“It has been nice,” mentioned Lopez. “Each of them have a very good perspective of what they’re seeing in me and what I can do. They’ve each been collaborating very nicely up to now and I am unable to watch for what’s in retailer. The most effective factor about it’s that I mix each of their types into mine and also you guys will see one other model.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports activities journalist, author and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports activities, USA At this time, The Guardian, Newsweek, Males’s Well being, NFL.com, Los Angeles Instances, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Journal and extra. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America and the MMA Journalists Affiliation. He could be reached on X (previously Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, by e mail at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or by way of www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
