Teofimo Lopez: “I love guys that talk that sh*t, so we can shut ‘em up.”
With his title fight with Sandor Martin approaching, Teofimo Lopez spoke with Boxing Scene about his upcoming fight and why he favors this fight in a stylistic matchup. Lopez and Martin are fighting for the WBO Super Lightweight title this weekend with Top Rank Boxing. You can catch that fight on November 10th live on ESPN+!
Teofimo Lopez: Feasting on Southpaws
Pointing to his past record, Teofimo Lopez says that he gets southpaws and that Martin will be no different from southpaws he’s faced in the past. Most notably, Teofimo Lopez defeated Vasyl Lomachenko in a big upset in 2020. He took the belts off Lomachenko and thrust his name into the upper echelon of boxing. He also brings up another past opponent: Diego Magdaleno. Magdaleno is another southpaw that Lopez knocked out in round seven in 2019.
“I’m great with southpaws,” Lopez said when he spoke with BoxingScene.com. “I love southpaws. I mean, you guys have seen it with Lomachenko and you guys have seen it with Diego Magdaleno. So, with Sandor Martin, I’m looking forward to doing that and worse because you know why? This guy’s talking a lot of smack. He’s really believing his own hype. So, this is good work for us. This is great. I love guys that talk that sh*t, so we can shut ‘em up. He’s saying he’s gonna whoop my ass and he’s gonna have a fun night that night, and other things on top of that. So, he’s really talking his sh*t.”
With big names on the horizon with a couple more wins, Lopez knows that Martin is not a fighter he wants to look past. While his fight with Jose Pedraza being his first opponent, he says that whoever he fights is going to understand what “The Takeover” is really all about.
“Obviously, I wasn’t intrigued by fighting Pedraza,” Lopez said. “But whoever they put in front of me, we know we’ve gotta beat him because there ain’t no way they’re taking everything ‘The Takeover’ is trying to do. We don’t overlook anybody. We know that Sandor Martin is gonna come out there looking for another upset. We know he’s looking forward to upsetting me here in my hometown, New York City, Madison Square Garden. This guy has a huge opportunity, just as much as I do.”
With a win, Lopez puts his name in conversations to unify the super lightweight division. That means Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor will be names on Lopez mind with a win come Saturday night.
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In addition to covering boxing for My MMA News, Blaine Henry, the author, also analyzes fights from all combat sports across the globe.
Blaine Henry can be found on Twitter, on his Substack, an YouTube.
