Teofimo Lopez says he’s hurt that his new trainer, Eddy Reynoso, has chosen not to work with him to prepare him for the title defense of his WBO light welterweight belt against Arnold Barboza Jr. on the May 2nd card at Times Square in New York City.
(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
Reynoso will be training Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight fight against IBF champion William Scull on May 3rd in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The popular training can’t be in two places at one time to train Teofimo and Canelo. So, he’s opting to work with the superstar Canelo, who he’s been with from the beginning.
Second Best?
Teofimo still doesn’t like playing second fiddle. He says that even if he were on Canelo’s undercard for that event, he doesn’t think they would have put him as the co-main event. He says they’d have placed him below Jaime Munguia’s rematch with Bruno Surace.
That would have been a weird situation because Munguia was knocked out in his last fight and has been beaten in two out of his last three contests. He’s seen as a manufactured hype job, yet his fight would be placed above Teofimo’s if they were on the same card on May 3rd. That wouldn’t play well with Teo because he’s clearly a better fighter than Munguia.
“I got news for you guys. I won’t be training with them [Eddy Reynoso],” said Teofimo Lopez to Shaw Porter’s YouTube channel about him not training with Eddy Reynoso for his fight against Arnold Barboza Jr. on May 2nd. “I was looking forward to leaving tomorrow for camp with them. Maybe they don’t feel I’m focused, which is pretty interesting.”
Teofimo says he’s going to take over Canelo’s spot as the “face of the Latinos,” and he feels he’s the guy to do it. Unlike Canelo, he speaks English well, and he’s far more charismatic than him. Canelo is entertaining inside the ring, but he doesn’t have much to say outside of the ring. There’s no comparison. Teofimo is theatrical, funny, and entertaining at all times in press conferences and interviews. Canelo is just there, like a potted plant, with nothing to say, and depends on his fights to generate excitement.
“It could be a lot of things. Just the time frame. Maybe it could the promoting. Eddy Reynoso really didn’t elaborate and speak to my father.” I don’t know if I did something wrong. If it was me or, they’re just focused on their self,” said Teofimo to Punsch Drunk Boxing.
“They [Team Canelo] have that Saudi trip they’re going to be taking in a couple of weeks, and with a fighter like myself that is elite, maybe they need more time. It doesn’t make sense. Whatever the case may be, we love them, we appreciate them. I appreciate having that time with him [Eddy Reynoso] from that experience a little bit.
“It won’t be the end of our story with them. They’re just on tunnel vision right now. We’ll see. Am I disappointed about it? Yeah, I am, but I take it as competition. I don’t think they would have put me on co-main with Canelo Alvarez. I think they would have put me underneath Munguia. He’s a great fighter, but not Teofimo,” said Lopez.
