By Chris Williams: Teofimo Lopez doesn’t care if he has to wait for the coronavirus to go away before he meets Vasiliy Lomachenko. He just wants to face him and beat him up, and take his IBF and WBO titles from him.
The fight will be for the undisputed lightweight championship, but what’s more important for Lopez is him beating Lomachenko. He would be just the second fighter to whip Lomachenko since the two-time Olympic gold medalist turned pro seven years ago in 2013.
In Loma’s second pro fight, Orlando Salido did a number on him in beating him by a 12 round split decision. Salido beat Lomachenko with body shots, which had him holding on all night long in an attempt to shut down his offense.
Teofimo still waiting for the date of the fight
“We are waiting for the date (for Lomachenko), I am in Arkansas, not New York,” Teófimo said to ESPN.com. “As you have seen in the news, New York is not having a good time, and me with asthma, the coronavirus is a very bad thing for me, so I have tried to stay away, the good thing is that the family is fine.”
Lopez (15-0, 12 KOs) cant rip Lomachenko’s WBC Franchise title from him because that’s some kind of weird honorary title the World Boxing Council recently created and it can’t be taken.
IBF lightweight champion Teofimo, 22, was supposed to be facing Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) on May 30 on ESPN pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight is expected to be postponed, even though there as never an official kick-off news conference to announce the fight. Coronavirus will be causing the delay of the Lomachenko vs. Lopez fight.
The New Yorker Teofimo is currently training in Arkansas as a precaution, as he doesn’t want to risk catching the coronavirus. Lopez has an asthma problem, and it would be risky for him to catch this lethal virus, which has killed thousands of people worldwide.
Lopez’s power gives him a good shot at winning
Teofimo has a good chance of winning the fight, even though Lomachenko will be the favorite. In Lomachenko’s last four fights, he’s been hit a lot and he was knocked down by Jorge Linares in 2018. Teofimo has similar talent as the last 4 opponents tat Lomachenko has faced, but his power is much better.
Lomachenko’s face was badly marked up in those fights from the many shots he was hit with. If Teofimo is able to land with the same regularity as Lomachenko’s recent opponents did, he could knock him out.
There’s no question that Lomachenko, 32, will be the favorite going into this fight, but that doesn’t mean anything. We saw what Teofimo did to his last opponent Richard Commey after he landed one big right hand in the 2nd round of their fight last in December. After Commey staggered back to his feet, Lopez finished him with a hail of shots.
For Lomachenko to beat Teofimo, he’s going to need to dominate him like he used to do with his opponents many years ago. Way back when Lomachenko was fighting guys like Nicholas Walters, Miguel Marriaga, Jason Sosa and Roman Martinez, he was schooling everyone. But since Lomachenko moved up to 135 in 2018, he’s had a hard time in 3 out of his 4 fights in the division.
The only easy fight Loma has had was against former WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla in April of last year, but that was against a weak belt-holder. There’s a big difference in Lomachenko fighting Teofimo.
Lomachenko will need to pitch a shutout if he wants to win this fight. If Teofimo lands even one flush shot on Loma’s chin, it’ll be goodnight.
Details come secondary. @TeofimoLopez‘s No. 1 priority is getting in the ring with Lomachenko 👀 pic.twitter.com/rqGYZvTqfy
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 27, 2020
