Teofimo Lopez returns in a world title opportunity against Rolly Romero on August 22, and with the fighters having a personal relationship with one another over the years, Teofimo Lopez Sr gets asked about what it’s like that they’ll now be heading into combat with a family friend. Teofimo Sr, however was more preoccupied with other ideas.
Teofimo Sr on their relationship with Rolly, which quickly spirals into explaining away his son’s loss to Shakur Stevenson
“There was a time where Rolly said he would never fight us but, you know, nobody wants to fight Rolly so we stepped in for a world title after a loss, a bad loss that
my son wasn’t even that fight. It was a horrible fight, it was more mental, and it had a lot to do with the way they don’t give my son credit for all the things that he has done. Not putting him in the P4P list, that you could say he was two-time undisputed…
“That hurts a boxer, mentally. My son is like that, he takes that personal. And he just gave the fight to Shakur. He didn’t even slip, he didn’t do the things he does in boxing. You heard me, man. I was going crazy, I couldn’t believe what he was doing. He was fighting him to the right the whole night, stepping out and getting hit with that jab all night, and that’s not my son. That was a gift.
“But this is not a race, man. This is a marathon and let’s see what happens five years from now. Let’s see who’s up top.
“It’s good for Shakur, but at least we know how to lose. I feel bad for Shakur when he loses, and he’s a boring fighter, nobody going to see him, and we’re going to the top. Let’s see who’s up on top five years from now. We’re going for a real title right now, we’re fighting the champion. We’re not fighting for a vacant belt like Shakur does. He got two vacant belts.
“He’s only won two world titles with real champions. So this will be our third title fight, for three divisions with a world champion. First was Loma, Josh Taylor, and now it’s going to be Rolly.”
Getting back to the actual question about his relationship with Rolly
“Listen, in the game of boxing there’s no friends. When the time’s up, everybody wants to know who’s best. I want my son to fight the best and Rolly beat Ryan, so it’s time for us to step up and start what we started. This was our dream since our son was little and I knew he was going to make it to the top.”
On Rolly’s sparring with Teofimo
“My son got the best of Rolly in that sparring, and then they worked a couple of more sparrings. But that was about like seven years ago, so they was really young…It was a long time ago, so they’re different fighters now, they’re more experienced. Let the best man win.”
