Teofimo Lopez says he was offered less money to fight Devin Haney than was previously agreed to.
Teofimo Lopez spent some time going into more detail as to why he opted not to go through with a summer fight against Devin Haney. As Lopez explains, he negotiated his purse for three fights with Turki Alalshikh heading into the Arnold Barboza fight, but then when the Haney fight was proposed it was for less money than had been agreed, therefore he couldn’t go through with it in good conscience.
“So it’s not that I don’t want to fight Haney, guys,” Lopez would say. “This is not talking bad on Turki Alalshikh and it’s not talking bad on any of the guys that was part of the deal, however I don’t mind fighting anyone they put in front of me but I am a prizefighter, I am a person that is about principles…we signed fight two and three for X amount of dollars…
“We successfully did fight one with Barboza. Fight two includes, and I quote, ‘Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis or any other fighter that is in that high calibrated level,’ meaning it could be Haney, Rolando Romero, anyone that you guys want to see us face against.
“That was fight two. That was signed and sealed with X amount of dollars…when we came to fight two [inaudible] and Riyadh season said ‘we’re not going to pay you what we agreed for August.’ So there you have it.
“And the fact that they publicly announced the fight before I even signed the damn deal. Like, couldn’t they just wait. Part of me feels like I kind of got jobbed in the sense of was the Boots fight something that was even happening or not? Was it or not, or was this all a scheme to just put Haney in front of me because, you know, Haney and Garcia messed up the bag for a rematch.
“I was the only one that performed and executed and tried to make everyone excited [on the Times Square card] just to come back with ‘take it or leave it.’ I don’t do well with take it or leave its as I’ve had that in my past with Top Rank. So I felt like if we signed an agreement on a number can we stick to the assignment just like they expect us as the fighters to, and I quote, ‘do what they want us to do’ in that damn contract, including perpetuity, meaning they own our names in the cause of the event, and possibly a year depending on the contract that you’re signing.
“So we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what comes around. I ain’t gonna wait. I’m grateful in my position right now, staying ready, focused…Who the f-ck is going to duck Haney?! Nah, seriously. Did you not see his last fight? Kid doesn’t want to fight. They’ve been piggybacking off my back, off my name, but ‘I’m not a big star.’ They piggybacking off my credits but I’m not the main guy.”
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