By Max Schramm: Bob Arum says he’s not sure if Teofimo Lopez will ever fight again after suffering a life-threatening esophagus injury while training for his fight last November against George Kambosos.
Top Rank promoter Arum says the former undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo (16-1, 12 KOs) could have died in his fight on November 27th against Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) if he were hit in the right spot.
At this point, Arum states that he doesn’t know if the 24-year-old Teofimo will resume his boxing career, but if he does, he wants him to move up in weight. It’s too hard on Teofimo’s body to make the 135-lb limit at this stage, says Arum.
Teofimo made his problems worse for the Kambosos fight by firing his nutritionist, a move that Arum suspects was made to cost-cut.
In Teofimo’s loss to Kambosos, he looked like he only had the energy to fight hard for two rounds of the fight, the first and tenth. Other than those rounds, Teofimo appeared lethargic and weak.
At the weigh-in the day before the fight, Teofimo appeared sickly, drained to the point where he looked ill. The contrast between the healthy and motivated-looking Kambosos was startling.
Teofimo looked like someone who needed to be in a hospital bed rather than compete in an athletic competition with a lot riding on the outcome.
Teofimo was lucky not to have been killed
“Well, he shouldn’t have been in the fight. He was lucky he didn’t get killed,” said Bob Arum to MMA Hour on Teofimo Lopez’s loss to George Kambosos last November.
“That’s no excuse, but they [Team Teofimo] didn’t take the weight off properly, and his esophagus blew up.
“The doctors, he was in the hospital afterward for four or five days [following Teofimo’s loss to Kambosos on November 27th], and the doctor said that if he’d taken a really hard shot to the lungs, he would have died. So that, to me, is inexcusable.
“Eddie [Hearn of Matchroom Boxing] was putting the fight on; he was the promoter. He had no background with Teofimo.
“We would have spotted it right away and pulled him out of the fight because you can’t risk your life just to make a payday and get a fight on,” Arum said.
In an ideal situation, Teofimo’s training team or promoter Eddie Hearn would have noted his condition and pulled him out of the fight with Kambosos. That’s what should have happened.
Teofimo’s future unclear
“I have no idea,” said Arum when asked if Teofimo may never fight again after this medical issue. “I talked to him every day this week, and he’s still not feeling well.
“I hope that he recovers and gets the proper preparation if he decides to fight again, and, of course, I would insist that he fight at a higher weight division because there’s no sense killing yourself making a weight that is going to really adversely affect you,” said Arum.
If the lung condition lingers, it’s going to make it impossible for Teofimo to resume his professional career and be effective. He can’t afford to have only enough energy to fight hard for two rounds before gassing out due to shortness of breath.
At this point, everyone that faces Teofimo will likely wait him out by taking it easy the first three rounds while he’s fresh, and then come on strong in the second half when he fades, as we saw in his fights with Kambosos and Vasily Lomachenko.
Arum says Teofimo fired his nutritionist
“This whole thing has been a perfect storm. [Vasily] Lomachenko, when he lost to Teofimo, apparently had a bad shoulder, which I didn’t know about,” Arum continued.
“So his strategy was, in effect, to do very little in the first few rounds and then fight in the back six rounds or five rounds of the fight, and then he lost on points [to Teofimo]. Well, that’s his fault. It’s nobody else’s fault.
“I know this because two days after the fight, the orthopedic surgeon operated on his [Lomachenko] shoulder.
“So again, you have Lomachenko fighting Teofimo with a bad shoulder, and then Teofimo winning that fight and fighting Kambosos with a bad lung condition brought on by taking off the weight in an improper way.
“I mean, he had a nutritionist with him in all prior fights, and for some reason, fired him,” said Arum about Teofimo firing his nutritionist. “Maybe to save money, I don’t know why. I think that’s why he was so screwed up going into the fight [with Kambosos], but it is what it is.
“If they don’t take care of themselves and think they can win going in with serious injuries, that’s on them nobody else,” said Arum about Lomachenko and Teofimo fighting with injuries.
With all the money that Teofimo was supposed to make for the Kambosos fight, it’s hard to believe that he would fire his nutritionist to save money.