Teofimo Lopez has ruled out moving up to welterweight to challenge IBF champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
Lopez, the WBO light welterweight champion, has said he wants to face Terence Crawford. Teofimo believes Crawford is starting to show signs of decline, and Teofimo (20-1, 13 KOs) said he would like to face the 36-year-old Crawford before he gets much older.
Teofimo has his eye on Crawford, not Ennis
Crawford has expressed no interest in returning to 147 pounds as a handicap to fight Teofimo. Bud Crawford fights at 154 pounds and has not spoken about returning to 147 before retiring.
The WBA and WBO have yet to strip Crawford of his remaining two 147-pound belts, but they are expected to be stripped soon.
“Crawford seems to be slowing down. I want to beat him before he retires. I want to beat him before he gets really old,” Teofimo Lopez told FightHype about his desire to face Terence Crawford.
Lopez's motivation: Cash out on Crawford
What Teofimo says is true: Crawford is declining and could lose his next fight, against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3 in Los Angeles. But Crawford has no intention of dropping down to 147 pounds to give Teofimo a chance at financial gain, which would be the only reason Teofimo wants to fight him.
“He's slowing down. You can see it in his legs. I'm only 26, I'm still a kid. He's 36, 10 years apart. I'm going up against Steve Clagett, he's 35, he's a natural 147-pounder, but he's cut down to 140,” Teofimo said.
The reason Teofimo Lopez is fighting Claggett is because he has shown he can't compete with tough opponents at 140 pounds and is in danger of losing even to a second-place contender, so Top Rank is being cautious with Teofimo and is holding onto their investment for as long as possible until a big-money fight comes along.
A fight against Crawford or Gervonta Davis is the type of fight Top Rank would be happy to agree to, but until that happens, Teofimo will likely be kept on the defensive and face the same type of underdog as Clagett.
“Why did they [team Crawford] Teofimo said, “We already [great]We just want to see how great we can be. That's what I thought boxing was about: the best fighting the best.”
Teofimo is not a great fighter, in fact he is an average fighter who is popular with fans on the East Coast, but he doesn't have the talent to compete against the best in the 140-pound division.
Dismissing Boots Ennis as a legitimate threat
“Jaron Boots has just been promoted to IBF champion and he is yet to defend the title in his next fight. [against replacement opponent David Avanesyan on July 13th]”He'll be facing someone that Crawford has already beaten,” Teofimo said. [in December 2022].”
Teofimo's comments about Boots Ennis are meant to excuse his decision to avoid fighting him because it would likely be a crushing defeat and would destroy his dwindling popularity.
Teofimo lost his status with a loss to George Kambosos Jr., and then controversial wins over Sandor Martin and Jermain Ortiz meant that this was the end for him. Now he's at rock bottom and looking to cash out against Crawford.
Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs) wanted to challenge Crawford for his IBF title, but Crawford had no interest in defending the belt against him.
When it became clear that Crawford would not be defending his title against Boots, the IBF stripped Crawford of his IBF mandatory title, and thus Boots Ennis was promoted to IBF champion rather than fighting for the belt.
Ennis was originally scheduled to face IBF mandatory opponent Cody Crowley in his first title defense on July 13, but withdrew from the bout due to health issues.
“This is his [Boots Ennis] “Believe it or not, this is the first challenge fight. I think Boots is a fighter with a great style, but about 30 of his fights have been club shows in Philadelphia. No one has challenged him yet. He has a lot of talent, but we'd have to see something in Jaron Boots to actually replace it,” Teofimo said, ruling out the possibility of fighting Boots Ennis.
Teofimo is understandably avoiding a fight with Boots Ennis, as that bout would likely end badly for the New York native, who has struggled even to beat near-considerations like Jermain Ortiz and Sandor Martin.
Te'o will now be fighting Steve Clagett and is using Terence Crawford's name for clout purposes to generate interest in his title defense this Saturday night on ESPN.
