Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Teófimo López reportedly rejected the final offer from his promoters at Top Rank to defend his title against Subriel Matías on March 15 at ESPN PPV in Las Vegas.
According to Keith Idec, Top Rank’s offer to WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) for the fight against former IBF 140-pound belt holder Matías (21-2 , 21 KOs), was above his “contract minimum.” “Teo remains intractable, his worst enemy, while his career plummets.
It’s unclear what kind of money Lopez, 27, was expecting for the fight with Matias, but whatever it was, Top Rank wasn’t offering it. It would have been risky for Teo because he has not performed well in the last four years. Teo has sounded and looked like a complete basket case since 2021.
Lopez, a native of Brooklyn, New York, has ALWAYS fought against high-pressure fighters throughout his nine-year professional career, and he could have crumbled against the tough Matias.
Subriel’s power would have been 100% pure hell for Teofimo, and he could have done it. mentally broken as he did in his 12-round split decision loss to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021.
Are López’s demands too high?
“Teófimo López rejected Top Rank’s final offer, “well above the minimum of his contract,” I was told, before last night’s deadline for a WBO 140-pound title fight against Subriel Matías. López and Matías would have fought in an ESPN PPV main event on March 15 in Las Vegas,” Keith Idec said in unknown.
Top Rank must have been concerned about Lopez’s recent fight against journeyman Steve Claggett (39-8-2, 22 KOs) last year on June 29. Teofimo absorbed a lot of punishment from Claggett, ending up with a very swollen face in the process of winning a tougher-than-expected 12-round unanimous decision.
It is believed that Top Rank had given Teo Claggett’s opponent as a confidence booster after his controversial victory over Jamaine Ortiz in their previous fight on February 8 last year.
Many boxing fans believe that the judges gave Teofimo a giveaway decision in that fight, and felt that Jamaine was robbed. I watched the fight and Ortiz won 9-3, and it wasn’t even remotely close. He dominated López even more than Kambosos.
Some believe that Teofimo’s career highlight, a close 12-round majority decision over Vasily Lomachenko in November 2020, ruined him as a fighter, leaving him a struggling fighter, unable to fight at the levels he had shown before. Lomachenko did something to Teo and he’s been mediocre ever since. What did Loma do to him in that fight to make him what he is?
