Teofimo Lopez has until mid-August to fight the winner of next month’s Arnold Barboza Jr vs Jack Catterall interim title bout
WBO president Gustavo Olivieri decreed today that super lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez must defend his title against the winner of Arnold Barboza Jr vs Jack Catterall within 180 days of that February 15th interim title fight.
For the record, that gives a deadline of August 14th.
Per Jake Donovan, Lopez (21-1, 13 KO) is still looking to face IBF champion Richardson Hitchins in a unification bout, but “negotiations are not quite close enough” for the sort of turnaround that the mandatory defense would demand. It’s hard to have much sympathy for him; nobody forced him to spend the last year fighting Jamaine Ortiz and Steve Claggett, nor axe the Subriel Matias fight.
Hell, the resolution points out that Lopez’s status as “super” champion gives him an extra-long window in which to satisfy his mandatory and he didn’t take advantage.
Lopez could also just ditch the belt, as he threatened to do as part of a moronic fake retirement stunt in 2023. That’d be my prediction, especially if Turki Alalshikh is, in fact, bankrolling a three-fight deal; if he’s going to fight a tricky technician with the potential to make him look bad, might as well pick the one that pays well. It’d be nice if he did it before the 15th so Barboza and Catterall can fight for the real thing.
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