The Nurturing of Teofimo Lopez, ‘The Takeover’

Last weekend on the undercard of the ESPN and Top Rank Pay-Per-View headlined by the welterweight showdown between Terence Crawford and Amir Khan, the sport’s top prospect, lightweight Teofimo Lopez, returned to action. Lopez stopped Edis Tatli, a former two-time European champion who hadn’t previously been stopped, with a body shot in the fifth round to improve his record to 13-0 (11 KOs). For Lopez it was just the latest impressive performance as he continues to talk about “taking over” the sport and becoming its biggest star attraction, while his fists back up those claims each time he fights.

The 21-year-old Lopez and his outspoken father-trainer Teofimo Lopez Sr. insist they are more than ready to fight the elite fighters in the sport. As a former amateur standout and 2016 Olympian for his father’s native Honduras, his background in the sport suggests his goals are anything but a pipedream. His brash pronouncements during his rise through the pro ranks are nothing new in the sport. In fact, it’s something that Top Rank Promotions, Lopez’s promotional company since he turned professional in the fall of 2016, has overseen plenty of times in the past.

Top Rank has truly cemented itself as the prime promotional company for developing star attractions. Two of the biggest money-makers of the past generation, future Hall of Famers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto, were both nurtured promotionally by Top Rank.  Oscar De La Hoya from a generation before also saw his early career guided by Top Rank. Each of those three fighters had proved by their thirteenth professional fight that they were not far off from fighting for championship glory. So as Lopez continues to blaze a fast track, is it farfetched to think that he is talking out of place when he talks about conquering the best in the world, and very soon?

By his twelfth professional fight, Miguel Cotto had fought two former world title challengers, Justin Juuko and John Brown. They provided him in-ring experience and seasoning before he claimed his first world championship in his twenty-first professional bout. Mayweather and De La Hoya were on a faster track. De La Hoya fought Jeff Mayweather (Floyd’s uncle) in just his fifth fight. He won his first world title in just his thirteenth fight when he beat Jimmi Bredahl and by his eighteenth pro fight owned two world title belts. As for Mayweather, he won his first world championship in his eighteenth fight, beating super featherweight title-holder Genaro Hernandez. In fact, many were surprised that Mayweather was able to beat Hernandez so easily as Hernandez was considered the best fighter in the weight class.

Each fighter while having early success and similar pedigrees differed in their approaches outside the ring. This is something that makes boxing unique from team sports. With boxing, fans tend to grow attached to specific fighters based on different variables. Sometimes it’s for the way a fighter fights inside of the ring and sometimes it’s how the fighter carries himself outside the ring. And sometimes it’s a combination of both.

Cotto was a stoic fighter, a poker-faced assassin who was revered for his never-say-die attitude and rarely said a negative thing about another fighter. Oscar De La Hoya, with his matinee idol good looks, was the sport’s poster boy and corporate America’s dream athlete as his appeal reached many different demographic groups. Mayweather originally seemed to be a humble kid looking to bring the Mayweather name to heights that his father and uncles were once on the cusp of achieving. However, he would eventually trade that in for an exaggerated persona depicting the excesses of wealth, while boasting that he was the greatest fighter of all time. It’s not really defined where Lopez’s personality will land him in comparison to these three legends. He may wind up being a combination of all three.

What is clear is that these former Olympians were able to make the quick transition to the paid ranks, making significant impacts quickly under the Top Rank banner. With recent victories over the likes of Mason Menard, Diego Magdaleno, and now Tatli in dominating performances, it’s easy to understand why Lopez would want to challenge the best the sport has to offer.

When Lopez joined Max Kellerman on Kellerman’s weekly half hour boxing show, he said that he wanted to fight the fighter many view as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Vasyl Lomachenko. Lopez stated that he doesn’t respect any man besides his father, that he fears no man, and that there were four or five ways to beat Lomachenko.

Many think that Teofimo is getting ahead of himself, but one thing is true: While the legends won titles quickly, they weren’t beating the best the sport had to offer in their respective weight classes until they themselves had reached their physical primes. So, this might just be where Lopez can separate himself from the other fast risers that Top Rank nurtured into big stars.

What was interesting was how Lomachenko responded to what Lopez had to say on Kellerman’s show. “I don’t know why everyone is asking me about Lopez,” said Lomachenko after his latest victory over Anthony Crolla. “Lopez hasn’t fought anyone, no champions.”  (This statement was somewhat ironic as coming out of the amateur ranks Lomachenko demanded that whichever promoter he signed with needed to get him a title shot immediately and he got to fight for a world title in only his second professional bout.)

Barring Lomachenko, Lopez has stated that he wants to fight Richard Commey, the current IBF world lightweight champion. But Commey also has his eyes on Lomachenko who he was scheduled to fight on April 12, a fight that fell to Crolla when Commey suffered a hand injury. Commey recently stated that he would like a tune-up fight this summer before finally fighting Lomachenko in a unification bout later this year and that would seem to rule out Lopez who may not get his title shot until he moves up a weight class, which will eventually happen.

Whatever the immediate future holds for him, however, Teofimo Lopez, with Top Rank’s continued nurturing, may yet reach the highest summit of the sport, achieving his “takeover.”

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