Teofimo Lopez says Mayweather ruining his legacy by doing exhibitions

By Boxing News - 02/04/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez is continuing his crusade against celebrity boxing matches involving Youtubers by lecturing Floyd Mayweather Jr for his announcement this week about his three planned exhibition matches in 2021 against Logan Paul, Jake Paul, and 50 Cent.

The undisputed lightweight champion Lopez, who planning on ducking a rematch with Vasily Lomachenko in favor of a soft title defense against George Kambosos Jr, has the gall to say Mayweather is ruining his legacy because he wants to make a little dough on three exhibitions.

You can argue that Teofimo is the wrong person to be lecturing Mayweather on how he’s ruining his legacy. Instead of Teofimo begging for the Youtuber celebrity matches to end, he should be happy.

These events are bringing more fans into the sport because Mayweather and the Logan brothers know what they’re doing when it comes to building up fights. Teofimo needs to take notes.

Heck, Jake and Logan are new to the sport of boxing, and they’re already surpassing many of the top boxers, Teofimo included, in hyping up their fights.

Image: Teofimo Lopez says Mayweather ruining his legacy by doing exhibitions

“Floyd man, you’re ruining your legacy. It’s a damn shame to see it all happen like that.I love Floyd, man. I looked up to him. He did a huge thing,” said Teofimo to the AK & Barak show at SiriusXMBoxing.

Teofimo is going to have to learn to live with the Youtuber celebrity matches involving fighters like Mayweather and other well-known stars because they’re not going to go away. This is just the beginning.

Lopez, 23, sounds like a bitter old man with the way he’s bellyaching about Mayweather ruining his legacy and how the YouTuber Boxing has to stop.

Teofimo should focus on his own situation at lightweight by maximizing the amount of time he has left in the division by fighting the best instead of going for the easy money against obscure fighters like Kambosos, who almost lost his last fight against a shot Lee Selby.

Teofimo only has two fights left at 135, and he’s going to waste one of them against Kambosos. Instead of crying about Mayweathers’s legacy, he should be concerned with his own.

If Teofimo wants to fix what’s wrong with boxing, he needs to start with himself by dedicating the remainder of his career by only facing the best.

Image: Teofimo Lopez says Mayweather ruining his legacy by doing exhibitions

The YouTubers and Mayweather can’t take anything away from Tefimo if he were doing the right thing by fighting these guys:

  • Devin Haney
  • Ryan Garcia
  • Vasily Lomachenko
  • Shakur Stevenson
  • Gervonta Davis
  • Regis Prograis
  • Felix Verdejo
  • Jorge Linares
  • Viktor Postol
  • Jose Zepeda

So what if Logan and Jake Paul are making more money than many of the other boxers in the sport. They’re bringing more fans in than even the best boxers because they understand social media and know how to build momentum for their fights.

YouTuber Jake Paul (2-0, 2 KOs), who considered being a lot better than his brother Logan, is facing former UFC star Ben Askren on April 17th in a non-exhibition match. If Jake wins that fight, he’s got a chance to fight Mayweather.

But Jake let Floyd know earlier on Thursday that he can forget about fighting him in an exhibition because he’s not willing to do that.

Jake wants the fight with Mayweather to be a real professional match that counts on the record books. And he also wants a 50-50 purse split right down the middle.

YouTube video

The 24-year-old Jake Paul helped the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr exhibition match bring in 1.9 million pay-per-view buys with the attention brought to the event on social media. Jake destroyed former NBA basketball player Nate Robinson in a highlight-reel knockout on the undercard.

If this fight brings in huge ratings, it’s going to show you want the potential will be for a fight between Jake and Mayweather later this year.