Terence Crawford says he’ll agree to fight Teofimo Lopez if he defeats ‘Little GGG’ Israil Madrimov next. The WBO light welterweight champion Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) traded trash talk with Crawford on social media on Saturday.
Madrimov doesn’t have a fight lined up after his recent loss to Crawford, and he might be willing to fight Teofimo at 154. It would be a tuneup for him, and it would receive a lot of publicity.
Lopez made it clear that he wanted to fight Crawford, but he wanted the match at 154 without any conditions. Crawford has other ideas. He’s set up a hurdle for Teofimo in the former of former WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs), a fighter that he defeated by a narrow 12-round unanimous decision on August 3rd.
As desperate as Teofimo is for the Crawford fight, he should readily agree to his offer to fight Madrimov to earn the payday clash against him because he could hit the jackpot if he got lucky. Fighting Madrimov would be a nice payday for Teofimo, and his popularity would increase if he won or was competitive in losing.
Even if the Top Rank-promoted Teofimo Lopez did agree to Crawford’s offer, his chances of defeating Madrimov would be nonexistent. Lopez just struggled to defeat seven-loss fighter Steve Claggett in his last fight on June 29th and took a lot of facial punishment, winning a 12 round unanimous decision.
Teofimo has had problems beating Jamaine Ortiz, Sandor Martin, and Pedro Campa in the last two years. Many fans felt that Teofimo was given a gift decision against Martin and Ortiz. In 2021, Teofimo lost to George Kambosos Jr. by a 12 round split decision. That was the fight where Teofimo’s career began heading downhill.
It’s a dead end for Lopez staying at 140, as there are no big names in that division anymore. Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia have moved up to 147. Isaac Cruz just got beaten, and the other fighters are unknowns as far as casual boxing fans are concerned.
@TeofimoLopez if you can beat @IsrailMadrimov in yo next fight I’ll fight you deal?😁 let’s see how serious you wanna fight me.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) October 6, 2024
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