By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez wants everyone to pay attention to what he does to Vasiliy Lomachenko when they fight later on this year in a unification clash at 135.
IBF lightweight champion Teofimo (15-0, 12 KOs) wants to make an example of WBA/WBC/WBO champion Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) by knocking him out in front of the entire world.
After he puts the 32-year-old Lomachenko in his place, Teofimo says he wants to go after WBC champ Devin Haney and then WBC/WBO 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez.
If Lopez beats Lomachenko, there’s no point in him sticking around to battle Haney or any of the other lightweights because he’ll have already proven himself with the win over the #1 guy.
Ryan Garcia isn’t on Teofimo’s hit list because he doesn’t hold a world title WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis holds the secondary title, so he’s of less interest for Teofimo.
Teofimo says fighters are afraid of him
“They calling me out? They don’t mean that s***,” said Teofimo Lopez on social media talking about Haney, Lomachenko, and Jose Ramirez. “And they don’t mean that s***. I’m going, to be honest with you’ll.
“There aren’t nobody like me. Call me out, and I’ll be there. There isn’t nobody like me. We’re working. No fight date yet, and we’re still working. They don’t mean that s*** when they be calling me out.
“None of these guys mean that s***. They’re scared. All of them are scared. Call me out. I’ll be right there off the plane. I’ll be right there with you. I can do it to any way you want it,” said Teofimo.
The top 135-pound fighters may not be afraid of Teofimo right now, but they will if he knocks out Lomachenko. The punching power that Teofimo is showing in his workouts is above that of the other lightweights in the division. That includes Tank Davis.
The incredible power that Teofimo can generate with either hand, it’s impressive. What’s interesting is that Teofimo can punch with massive power even when he’s not loading up. It’s effortless the way Teofimo can hit.
Lopez: Lomachenko is going to be the first
“I can box you and box you out, and I can do whatever I feel like,” said Lopez. “All those guys in my weight class calling me out, they don’t mean that s***. Everybody calling me out at 140, they don’t mean that s***.
“Loma is going to be first, and everybody else after that. Everything I talk about, I do it. You want to talk about Loma, watch what happens. Jose Ramirez, the same thing. You want to talk that s***, be ready,” said Lopez.
Lomachenko is probably going to use a lot of movement to keep Teofimo, 22, from being able to land his best power shots. In Lomachenko’s last fight against Luke Campbell, he was on the move the entire fight, and he made it hard for him to land. However, Campbell, 5’9″, as still able to use his size to land a lot of heavy shots in the fight.
If Teoifmo can connect as frequently as Campbell did, he could very well hurt Lomachenko and knock him out. There’s going to be more pressure on Lomachenko to make sure he doesn’t get hit. Loma cannot let Teofimo hit him at the same clip that Jose Pedraza, Jorge Linares, and Campbell did because he could get knocked out.
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