By Kenneth Friedman: Teofimo Lopez says he’s at a high career-high 160 pounds right now and he’ll need to thin down considerably to make the 135-lb limit for his unification fight against Vasiliy Lomachenko.
The sport is shut down right now, and there’s no telling when it’ll restart. At 160, the famous IBF lightweight champion Teofimo (15-0, 12 KOs) will need to lose 25 lbs for him to make weight.
As long as Lopez takes advantage of the time that he has during the shut-down of the sport, he should be able to get down close enough to 135 for him to take off the weight by dehydrating.
Lopez looks like a welterweight on the night of his fights, so he probably will need to trim down to at least 150 lbs for him to be able to make the 135-lb limit by dehydrating.
As long as Lomachenko isn’t insisting on a rehydration clause to limit the weight Teofimo gains back, he’s got a chance to win this fight just on size alone. Lomachenko has beaten big fighters before, but not like Teofimo.
Teofimo moving up to 140
At 22, Teofimo has outgrown the lightweight division, and that’s why his fight with WBA/WBC/WBO champ Limachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) will be his final at 135. Teofimo will be moving up to the 140-lb weight class after the Loma unification match. But if Teofimo fails to make weight, it would be a big disappointment.
Let’s be clear on this. There’s no way that Lomachenko will back out of the Teofimo fight regardless of him potentially missing weight. There’s too much money in the clash, and besides, Lomachenko will still be able to fight for Teofimo’s IBF title.
“No, I’ll make it,” he says quietly. “This fight is going to happen,” said Teofimo to ESPN.com.
The belt will fall vacant if Teofimo comes in over the 135-lb limit, and only Lomachenko will be able to compete for it. If there’s a weight clause in the contract, then Teofimo will need to pay Lomachenko extra for having come in over the limit.
Besides the money issue, Teofimo won’t receive full credit if he beats Lomachenko. It would be the same thing we saw with Orlando Salido not getting credit after he defeated Lomachenko in 2014 by a 12 round split decision. Salido weighed in over the 126-lb limit at 128¼ lbs. And after rehydrating, Salido’s weight shot up to an incredible 147 pounds, which he used to work Lomachenko over.
Lomachenko’s head movement was useless against Salido, who focused entirely on throwing body shots. Loma had no defense for those types of punches, and that hasn’t changed. What’s changed is Lomachenko hasn’t fought a body puncher since his loss to Salido.
Lomachenko wants to “CASH out” – Teofimo
Teofimo says Lomachenko was trying to get a 70-30 split for the fight in case it doesn’t go his way. The split that Teofimo wanted was 55-45, which would have made things a lot closer. It’s unclear what the split will be for the fight.
It won’t be surprising if Lomachenko winds up with a 60-40 split, which is a good split for him. Without Teofimo, Lomachenko wouldn’t be involved in a big fight when he comes back.
While Lomachenko has a lot of talent, he hasn’t the big-name opposition needed to make him a household name. You can argue that the biggest name on Lomachenko’s resume is two-time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux, who had to move up three weight classes to face him at super-featherweight. Rigondeaux is well-known with the hardcore boxing fans, but not the casual ones.
“He’s trying to cash out in case he loses, which he will,” said Teofimo.
Lomachenko, 32, has the skills and the experience to win this fight, but his age and his lack of size in comparison to the 22-year-old Teofimo is working against him. Teofimo is younger, and he’s got the size of a welterweight with the power to boot. No matter how talented Lomachenko is, things could go wrong for him if Teofimo can land his power shots at a decent clip.
With Teofimo’s power, he doesn’t need to land a lot of his punches for him to beat Lopez. Even if Teofimo lands an anemic 10% of his shots, that might be more than enough for him to win.
