Teofimo Lopez’s promoter, Bob Arum, says Teo “makes no logical sense” with his claims that his contract with Top Rank is no longer valid. Arum states that Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) signed a second contract extension when he scheduled him to face Sandor Martin on December 10, 2022.
Teofimo believes he’s no longer under contract with Arum’s Top Rank company, and he’s looking to move on to what he feels will be bigger paydays. He hasn’t been in a big fight in four years when he edged the much smaller and Vasily Lomachenko in October 2020.
All of Teofimo’s fights since then have been against non-popular fighters, at least in terms of what U.S. fans view as popular. He did fight Josh Taylor, but he’s from Scotland, and that fight didn’t register on the radar with the American public.
Teofimo has looked poor in five of his last six fights since 2021, and some fans believe he’s washed up. He’s only still winning due to Top Rank’s soft matchmaking and two controversial decisions against Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin. Those easily should have been losses for Teofimo if not for the generous scoring by the judges.
“Teofimo sometimes acts like he has a screw loose. I like the kid, but I can’t figure him out, and he makes no logical sense,” said Bob Arum to Dan Rafael on X. “He signed an extension with us first with the Jose Pedraza fight that didn’t happen, and then when we did another fight with Sandor Martin, he signed the same extension.
“So it’s there in black and white. I assume he showed the lawyer the first contract and not the second. Dealing with Teofimo is like dealing with Alice in Wonderland,” said Arum.
The declining performances and erratic behavior by Teofimo have hurt his popularity in the last three years, beginning with his defeat against George Kambosos Jr. in 2021. Teofimo might not be worth Arum keeping on for the remainder of his contract unless he has plans for a cash-out.
None of the top names at 140, like Ryan Garcia or Devin Haney, are going to want to fight Teofimo because his stock has dropped too far, and there would be the risk of losing a questionable decision like Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin did.
Teofimo’s Recent fights:
– Steve Claggett
– Jamaine Ortiz
– Josh Taylor
– Sandor Martin
– Pedro Campa
– George Kambosos Jr.
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