Promoter Bob Arum reveals that he’s working on a deal for Teofimo Lopez to face Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis on March 1, 2025, in a joint PPV on DAZN and ESPN.
Arum’s Plan
Lance Pugmire @pugboxing reports that Top Rank boss Arum is negotiating the fight for Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) to move up to welterweight to challenge ‘Boots’ Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) for his IBF 147-lb belt. It’s questionable whether the fight will get made.
Teofimo recently babbled about being the “King of the 140-lb division” and offering Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia a 55-45 split. The silence was deafening, and nothing came back.
If Arum offers a similar deal with Boots Ennis, it’ll be interesting to see if he accepts. His career isn’t looking too good after recent miserable performances back-to-back for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
A Desperate Move For Teofimo
From Top Rank’s perspective, it’s understandable why they’re letting Teofimo walk the plank for this risky fight; his career has gone belly up. They have to do something with Lopez because things are looking desperate. He deserves losses to Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin to go along with his defeat against George Kambosos. He looks shot.
If they don’t put Teofimo in with Boots, he’ll likely lose to one of these no-name fringe contenders they keep matching him against.
This would be the first big fight for the two-division world champion Lopez, 27, since his victory over Vasily Lomachenko on October 17, 2020. It’s been four years since Teofimo upset Lomachenko by a 12-round unanimous decision, and these are the lackluster fights he’s had since:
– Steve Claggett
– Jamaine Ortiz
– Josh Taylor
– Sandor Martin
– Pedro Campa
– George Kambosos Jr
None of those six fights resonated with the boxing public, and Lopez has seen his once sky-high popularity plummet to the point where he’s largely irrelevant. Teofimo is seen by fans as an oddball character, sounding scrambled in interviews and inconsistent in his performances. He fights like he no longer has any senses.
Is Ennis A Bust?
If Ennis looks anything like he did in his recent fight against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th, Teofimo has an excellent chance of beating him because he gets hit too much. Karen made Boots look like a novice, schooling him for nine rounds before gassing out.
Hearn will likely pursue the idea of matching Ennis against Lopez because this might be as good as it gets for him before his contract ends. He’s got to regret signing Boots because he’s been lacking in his two fights for Hearn against Chukhadzhian and David Avanesyan. If Ennis loses, at least it’ll be against a name fighter.
Boots made things worse by choosing not to accept the offer fo fight Vergil Ortiz Jr. for his WBC interim 154-lb title on the massive February 22nd card in Riyadh. That move showed Ennis’s lack of ambition and risk-taking ability.
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