Teofimo Lopez Sr says his son won’t be fighting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis or Devin Haney right now because they need to build their resumes. He says Floyd Mayweather Jr wants the unbeaten Tank (24-0, 23 KOs) to get a tune-up in, and Teofimo Lopez Jr isn’t going to wait around.
According to Lopez Sr, Teofimo has one or two fights left at 135 before he makes a move up to 140 to go after the two belt-holders, Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez.
Teofimo Jr to face George Kambosos Jr. next
In the meantime, the unbeaten IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) will be defending against his IBF mandatory George Kambosos Jr. (19-0, 10 KOs) in Australia,
Tefofimo Sr states that the Kambosos Jr. will be a huge one in front of a crowd of 65,000 in Australia.
The Australian Kambosos Jr. isn’t well known in the U.S, and the reason for that is he’s fought in his home country mostly against lesser opposition.
American boxing fans won’t be excited at seeing Teofimo face Kambosos Jr., especially when he’s repeatedly rejecting the idea of giving Vasily Lomachenko a rematch.
Teofimo Jr beat the injured Lomachenko by a 12 round decision last October in an upset, but surprisingly, he doesn’t want to give the former three-division world champion a rematch. Some boxing fans think Teofimo is afraid to face Lomachenko a second time for fear he’ll lose.
It looks bad that Teofimo is turning down a lucrative second fight with Lomachenko to fight an unknown Australian fighter Kambosos Jr., who has a resume that is largely filled with wins over fluff opponents.
The conclusion that boxing fans have is Teofimo is ducking Lomachenko because he wants to milk his 15 minutes of fame for as long as possible.
The way that Teofimo is showing no interest in Lomachenko, Haney, and Tank Davis is a glimpse of what kind of champion he is.
Kambosos’s best career-win was a razor-thin 12 round split decision over past his prime Lee Selby. Kambosos Jr. looked terrible.
Teofimo Sr says Tank fight not happening
“There’s no fight with Gervonta Davis,” said Teofmo Sr to Fighthype about Vasily Lomachenko. “You already heard Floyd Mayweather say, ‘Gervonta Davis needs another tune-up fight before he fights my son.
My son isn’t going to stay in the 135-pound weight division. Maybe one, maybe two, we don’t know,” said Teofimo Sr when asked how many fights does Lopez have left at lightweight. ”
“It depends. If the money is right, we’ll stay, but I’m not going to damage my son’s career by leaving him in a weight division that he can’t make anymore.
“My son is not performing at 100% at 135 because he has to lose all that weight. So, he’s really fighting weak in that fight.
“I think he’ll be more powerful at 140, and that’s what we’re trying to go to. Let’s see what happens. We got a good fight with George Kambosos Jr up in Australia. It’ll be 65,000 people. I’m all in for it.
It would be interesting to see what Mayweather has to say about his fighter Tank Davis preferring to take a tune-up rather than face Teofimo.
What’s weird is the different excuses Teofimo Sr makes for why his son can’t fight Tank.
He says that Tank needs a tune-up fight as the reason why Teofimo can’t fight him. But then Teofimo Sr says Tank needs to build-up before he’ll let his son fight him.
Haney and Tank need to build their resumes
“A fight with Devin Haney, a fight with Gervonta Davis, or any of those guys don’t make no sense right now,” said Teofimo Sr. “These guys need to make up their resumes, they need to start fighting bigger guys.
“Leo Santa Cruz isn’t a top dude. My son was even telling Tank, ‘What are you fighting this dude for? It’s a disgrace.’
“We’re not going to go back down and fight a guy at 130 pounds or 126. It doesn’t make no sense. We’re not beating nobody if we’re going down.
“We’re fighting guys in our weight division, and then we’re going forward with that. We’re not going backward. We’re taking all the big fights.
Given that Teofimo Jr is supposedly fighting only one or two more times at 135 before he moves up to 140, it sounds like he’s never going to fight Haney or Tank. We already know that Teofimo Jr will never fight Lomachenko again because he already said, “what for?”
Teofimo Jr thinks he’ll beat Lomacgenko in the same way in the rematch, but unfortunately, the fans don’t agree with him.
They think Teofimo is afraid of facing Lomachenko again and that he’s cherry-picking by looking to face Kambosos Jr.
Teofimo Sr compares his son to Canelo
“There’s no one at this moment that can beat him, nobody. It’s just going to get better as he grows because he’s going to be way faster than the other guys, and he’s going to have more strength than the guys at the 140 and 147-pound weight divisions.
“The only difference is my son isn’t going to take the type of punishment that Canelo obtains with it, where I don’t even see where it bothers Canelo.
“Whatever Canelo is doing is great; that’s his style. I think my son is more creative in the sense of hitting and not getting hit,” said Teofmo Sr.
There’s no comparison between Teofimo Lopez Jr and Canelo Alvarez right now. The way that Teofimo ran out of gas and looked worried about the pressure that was being put on him by Lomachenko was very un-Canelo-like.
Kambosos Jr could be next for Teofimo
“I told everybody this guy was a diva from two years,” said Teofimo Sr. in talking about Lomachenko. “I could tell a lot about a person when I meet a person, and when I see a person.
“The way he [Lomachenko] greeted me that day when I got crazy on him, it was because it was meant to be. I didn’t like his attitude.
I showed him that my son was going to beat him, and I told everybody my son was going to beat him. I’ve been saying for two years, and we did it.
“The sky is the limit for us right now. We’re not even thinking about Lomachenko right now. We’re thinking about the Jose Ramirez, we’re thinking about getting all these belts, and we’re thinking about the money fights against [IBF mandatory] George Kambosos Jr up in Australia. 65,000 people, that’s going to be crazy.
“He’ll [Teofimo Jr] will be the first youngest guy to make $10 million per fight. So that’s where I’m going to,” said Teofimo Sr.
Teofimo would be better off facing the best possible fighter at 135, be it Haney, Ryan Garcia, or Tank Davis. There’s no reason for Teofimo to sabotage his career by fighting the little known Kambosos Jr.
Teofimo Sr is talking about the fight with Kambosos Jr being a big-money match, but I doubt it. What Teofimo should be doing is building his resume by cleaning out the 135-lb division against fighters that the U.S boxing fans have heard of and have respect for.
Even if a fight with Haney doesn’t bring as much money as a match against Kambosos Jr, it’s a contest that will go further to increase the popularity of Teofimo. But if the real reason Teofimo wants no part of Haney, Tank, and Lomachenko is that he’s afraid of them, it makes sense for him to face Kambosos Jr.
