Teofimo Lopez will face Steve Clagett on Saturday (June 29) at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach, Florida. The bout marks Lopez's return to the ring after a lackluster performance during Super Bowl week in February.
The 26-year-old Lopez, now 20-1 (13 KOs), is taking on a man nine years older who is on a nine-fight winning streak and considered far below the level of the WBO junior welterweight champion, a far cry from Terence Croixford, whom Lopez has often criticized.
Analysts Chris Algieri, Timothy Bradley and Paulie Malignaggi gave their opinions on the upcoming bout as part of ProBox TV's Big Fight Breakdown.
“He wants the big fights and he's fought a lot of tough fighters that other fighters don't want to fight,” Algieri said of Lopez. “Fighters like Sandor Martin and Jermaine Ortiz are tough opponents and you don't get a lot of reward for beating them.”
“First of all, I don't like that he's fixated on his youth,” Algieri continued. “You still have a lot to do. You're still early in your career and I would say you love the sport too much to leave it, so stop patting yourself on the back and keep working hard. You still have a lot to do.”
“Like I always say, when you start chasing dragons and gorillas, the fans get fed up,” Algieri said of Lopez's accusation against Crawford. “There are a ton of tigers out there that you could actually fight, and you go after some of these guys that don't even get a name in an interview.”
Bradley disagrees and believes a fight between Lopez and Crawford could happen in the future, even though Crawford will be fighting Israil Madrimov for the WBA junior middleweight title on August 3rd.
“He wants to face Crawford. I don't see anything wrong with that,” Bradley said. “I don't think he can beat Crawford, but I like his character. I like that he wants to take on the best. He's the type of fighter that likes a challenge and fights at his level. If he's going to fight someone like Crawford, he's going to go all out.”
Malignaggi pointed to a string of lackluster performances by Lopez dating back to Masayoshi Nakatani, Sandor Martin and Jermain Ortiz, and said Lopez never looked like the superstar fighter he was in his wins over former titleholders like Vasiliy Lomachenko and Josh Taylor.
“Sometimes Teofimo feels he has achieved something that younger fighters are still trying to achieve, so I want a legendary fight, a dream fight,” Malignaggi said. “Sometimes Teofimo subconsciously takes a step back when his performance is below par.”
