Teofimio Lopez must decide soon whether he wants to keep his WBO light welterweight title or give it up to focus on his potential fight in October against IBF 147-lb champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis on Turki Al-Sheikh’s Riyadh card.
WBO Deadline
The Ring reports that the World Boxing Organization has ordered Teofimo (21-0, 13 KOs) to defend his 140-lb belt against the winner of the February 15th clash between #1 WBO Arnold Barboza Jr. (31-0, 11 KOs) and #2 Jack Catterall (30-1, 13 KO).
Teo must defend his WBO title against the winner of that fight within 180 days, with a deadline of August 14th. While it’s certainly possible for Lopez to defend his title against the Barboza Jr-Catterall winner within that time, it seems 100% unrealistic that he’ll do so because of the risk of losing.
The ‘Brooklyn Vampire,’ as some fans call Teofimo, has been well-protected by his promoters at Top Rank for the last four years since George Kambosos Jr. exposed him in a 12-round split decision defeat in 2021.
Even with the careful matchmaking Top Rank has done for Teofimo, he still needed to be saved from defeats by the judges’ scoring in his fights against Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz in 2022 and 2024.
There’s been talk of Teo fighting a unification against IBF light welterweight champion Richardson Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs), possibly in April as part of the three-fight deal Lopez signed with Turki Al-Sheikh.
However, since Teofimo has not mentioned that fight in interviews, this suggests that he is putting off taking that risky match. Lopez would traditionally avoid that type of fight with every ounce of his being. He’s not capable of beating a high-level talent like Hitchins, and he would look silly trying.
If Turki wants Teofimo to take that fight against Hitchins, he may need to pay him an exorbitant sum or drag him into the ring kicking & screaming. It’s unclear how much Teo would want for a fight against Hitchins, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it were an absurd number.
That’s a terrible match-up for Lopez and would get him off to a bad start with a one-sided loss in his three-fight deal with Turki. It wouldn’t be bad for Al-Sheikh if he had an escape clause in his contract with Teofimo to allow him to get out of the deal if he immediately loses in his first fight.
If Teo gets blanked by Hitchins in a one-sided defeat, he would be useless to Turki for a fight against ‘Boots’ Ennis on his October card in Riyadh. Boxing fans wouldn’t want to see Teofimo back into a fight with Ennis off the back of a loss and four terrible performances against Steve Claggett, Jamaine Ortiz, Sandor Martin, and George Kambosos Jr.
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