Teofimo Lopez held an interview with DAZN Boxing where he did a full 180 on his assertion that Terence Crawford mostly faced injured or handicapped fighters. Instead, Lopez praised Crawford’s pedigree and achievements in the sport of boxing and styled his previous callout as a method to raise attention towards a potential fight between those two.
Currently, Teofimo Lopez (19-1, 13 KO’s) is set to main event in Top Rank’s February 8th fight card alongside fellow American Jamaine Ortiz (17-1-1, 8 KO’s). He will be defending his WBO super lightweight title which he won from Josh Taylor (19-1, 13 KO’s) last June.
Despite his bout with Ortiz set to take place in less than a month, Teofimo Lopez seems to be already looking ahead towards Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) as a future opponent. During his interview with DAZN Boxing, Lopez clarified why he had criticized Crawford’s resume.
“I speak on particularly the styles and the upcoming [build-up] of those fights,” Lopez explained when asked on his comments revolving around Crawford’s past opponents.
“When it comes to it, I’m not going to discredit or take away all the accomplishments that he [Terence Crawford] did at 135 [lbs] to 140, to no 147. That’s [a] solidified Hall of Famer. He is pound-for-pound and he’s [will be] in the Hall of Fame.
“But that makes great fights happen like this. You gotta call out those guys because that’s what makes the best fight the best, and that’s what makes boxing back to where it’s at.“
Teofimo Lopez’ most recent statements is a clear swivel from his earlier remarks surrounding Crawford’s resume, and seemed to be done on purpose to spark some controversy to drum up interest for a potential fight between him and Crawford.
Currently, the prospect of such a bout occurring is relatively unfeasible given Crawford seems to be tied up in a rematch with Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 21 KO’s) who recently underwent surgery―thus stalling the supposed rematch. With no details having emerged surrounding the rematch clause that Spence activated last August, it is still unknown whether Crawford can maneuver himself out of this rematch, thus limiting the possibility of a fight staged between him and Lopez.
Lopez also competes at super lightweight, a division below welterweight where Crawford has fought at for the past half decade, which even more begs questions as to Lopez’ motivation. A fight between the two world champions would be an entertaining and meaningful bout for both fighters’ careers but the obligations the two Americans are facing prevents the match from occurring in a timely manner.
Teofimo Lopez must also first make sure to make it past Jamaine Ortiz who, despite only one pivotal fight with Vasyl Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KO’s) on his resume, can still be an obstacle and cause an upset, similar to George Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KO’s) who scored a surprising win over Lopez in 2021 to become a unified lightweight champion.
