Teofimo Lopez has reportedly turned down a final offer from his promoters at Top Rank to defend his title against Subriel Matias on March 15 on ESPN PPV in Las Vegas.
According to Keith Idec, Top Rank’s offer to WBO light heavyweight champion Teofim (21-1, 13 KOs) for a bout against former IBF 140lb belt holder Matias (21-2, 21 KOs) was above his “minimum contract”. ” Teo remains unyielding, his own worst enemy, as his career plummets to the bottom.
It’s unclear what kind of money Lopez, 27, was expecting for the fight against Matias, but whatever it was, Top Rank wasn’t offering it. This would be risky for Teo as he has not had good results in the last four years. From 2021, Teo sounded and looked like a complete scumbag.
Lopez, born in Brooklyn, New York, has ALWAYS struggled against fighters under pressure during his nine-year pro career, and he could fall apart against the tough Matias.
Subriel’s power would be pure 100% hell for Teofim, and maybe it is mentally broken as he did in his 12-round split decision loss to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021
Are Lopez’s demands too high?
“Teofimo Lopez turned down Top Rank’s final offer, “well above his contract minimum,” I’m told, before the deadline late last night for a WBO 140-pound title fight against Subriel Matias. Lopez and Matias would fight in the main event of the ESPN PPV on March 15 in Las Vegas,” said Keith Idec on X.
Top Rank must have been upset by Lopez’s recent fight against assistant Steve Claggett (39-8-2, 22 KOs) last June 29. Teofimo took a lot of punishment from Claggett, ending up with a badly swollen face in the process of winning a 12-round, unanimous decision that was tougher than expected.
Top Rank is believed to have fed Tea opponent Claggett as a confidence booster following his controversial win over Jamaine Ortiz in his previous fight on February 8 last year.
Many boxing fans believe that the judges gave Teofim a decision in that fight, and they felt that Jamaine was robbed. I watched the fight and Ortiz won 9-3 and it wasn’t even close. He dominated Lopez even more than Kambosos.
Some believe Teofim’s career high point, a narrow 12-round majority decision over Vasily Lomachenko in November 2020, destroyed him as a fighter, leaving him a struggling fighter, unable to fight at the levels he had previously shown. Lomachenko did something to Theo and he’s been mediocre ever since. What did Loma do to him in that fight to turn him into what he has become?
