By Jeff Aronow: A drained-looking IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) and IBF mandatory George Kambosos Jr. (19-0, 10 KOs) both weighed in successfully on Friday at the weigh-in for their fight this Saturday night on November 27th on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Teofimo, 24, weighed in at the lightweight limit at 135 lbs and looked terrible, whereas his opponent Kambosos Jr. came in at 134.4 lbs.
The two had a long faceoff and you could tell that Kambosos, 28, was trying to get an edge by staring menacingly at Teofimo, trying his best to intimidate him. That kind of junk is useless at this level, though, and it looks good but it’s pointless.
Kambosos’ only chance of winning this fight is if Teofimo is drained from making weight, and runs out of gas easy on Saturday night. Apart from that, Kambosos is going to need an injury for Teofimo, but that’s unlikely.
This is Teofimo’s likely last fight at 135 before he moves up to 140 to begin campaigning at light welterweight. After eight years fighting in the lightweight division, Teofimo has outgrown the division and needs to move up to 140.
Teofimo vs. Kambosos undercard weights:
Azinga Fuzile 129.6 vs. Kenichi Ogawa 129.4
Raymond Ford 126 vs. Felix Caraballo 125.4
Zhilei Zhang 274 vs. Craig Lewis 273.2
Ramla Ali 122.2 vs. Isela Vera 121
Christina Cruz 111.6 vs. Maryguenn Vellinga 110.8
Anthony Herrera 118 vs. Jonathan Tejeda 115.4
Teofimo says “it’s personal”
“Because he doesn’t want it personal. I said that I want to break your neck and you’re saying, ‘It’s not personal?'” said Teofimo Jr. to iFL TV about Kambosos.
“This is personal for me. Every fight that I do is personal because they’re trying to take everything that I work so hard for. Every fight from this point on is personal. I’m surprised that he’s not taking it personal,” said Teofimo about Kambosos.
“Yes, absolutely, I do believe that,” said Teofimo when asked if he still believed the fight will end by a first round knockout. “I’m looking to do bigger and better things.
“I’m trying to do what I can when I can, and how I can. Next year in 2022, we make three fights happen.
“We agreed on making the fight happen,” said Teofimo about a fight between him and Devin Haney. “We didn’t say the weight. So for me, 140 is where we can make it.
“I’m not scared of Loma. It’s just that he never gave me a rematch clause,” said Teofimo in reacting to Josh Taylor making light of his win over Vasily Lomachenko by saying he’s a super featherweight and that he hasn’t given him a rematch because he’s scared.
Kambosos faking says Teofimo Sr
“I just want to say tune-in tomorrow, it’s going to be fast and it’s going to be the knockout of the year,” said Teofimo Lopez Sr. to Boxing Social on Saturday’s match between Teo and George Kambosos Jr.
“These guys don’t respect the champion and his family. We’re ready, but they’re not,” said Teofimo Sr. “My son is not losing to this dude.
“That mug that he [Kambosos] has is not real. He’s bringing it out, and he wants to convince himself that he can beat my son, but he knows deep inside he’s going to get knocked the f*** out.
“I can’t wait until tomorrow night so that all can end and we can send this guy [Kambosos Jr.] back to Australia. Hopefully, he doesn’t get that hurt.
“That’s the fight that we want,” said Teofimo Sr. about undisputed light welterweight champion Josh Taylor. “He fights in February, and we’ll fight in February with Devin Haney or whoever it is, we don’t care.
“We said we were going to fight him. My son can’t stay at this weight no longer. He’s been at this weight for eight years. We got to go up. This fight is going to be amazing. I just want everybody to tune in. Don’t miss it,” said Teofimo Sr.