Arnold Barboza Jr. (32-0, 11 KOs) had WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) looking cowed during their face-off today in the hallway in front of a bunch of media. Barboza Jr. had Teo looking scared.
Teofimo vs. Barboza Jr. are fighting on Turki Alalshikh’s card on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City. They’re the third fight on the Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero and Devin Haney vs. Jose Ramirez card.
It’s a perfect opportunity for Lopez-Barboza Jr. to steal the show from those two fights, which are expected to get most of the attention from fans and the media in the build-up to this mega-event.
Mental Cracks
The two fighters traded some brief trash-talk that sounded like the type you’d hear on the playground. It went nowhere. Initially, Teofimo appeared confident as he walked up to Barboza Jr, sizing him up, and telling that he could smell fear coming from him.
When the unbeaten #1-ranked Barboza Jr didn’t back down, you could see the confidence melt away from Lopez, and it looked like he wanted to escape.
The way that Barboza got the upper hand mentally was similar to George Kambosos Jr.’s approach, which had Teo falling apart during their head-to-head confrontations leading up to their fight in 2021. Lopez doesn’t have a stronger mental backbone.
You could tell from watching him that he’s not able to bully someone, he shows that he’s fragile. He doesn’t have the self-belief of a winner, which might explain why Top Rank had to protect him in the last four years.
Barboza Jr. looking really solid right now, coming off of wins over Jack Catterall and Jose Ramirez in his last two fights. Teofimo is going to have to raise his game for him to win this fight. Lopez just signed a three-fight deal with Turki and it would be a look of he loses his first fight of his contract against Barboza Jr.
