By Allan Fox: Teofimo Lopez appears to have changed his mind about wanting to challenge WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis for his title. The way Teofimo is talking, he’s not interested in fighting Prograis.
Today, Teofimo (18-1, 13 KOs) took to social media to say that Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) is “blacklisted” from fighting in the U.S because he’s signed with Probellum, who he says is “in cahoots with MTK.”
Prograis fought in the U.S. on November 26th, stopping Jose Zepeda in the eleventh round to capture the vacant WBC 140-lb title in Carson, California.
It would appear that Teofimo’s excuse for why he can’t fight Prograis is a way for him to avoid fighting him and potentially losing.
Teofimo’s promoter Bob Arum said last week that he wants to match him against Devin Haney once he finishes his fight with Vasyl Lomachenko and moves up to 140.
Although Arum also mentioned potentially making a fight with Prograis, Jose Ramirez, the first person to turn down a fight with Regis, said that Top Rank doesn’t work with Probellum.
How I am blacklisted from the US? My last fight was in LA. Last time I checked that was apart of the United States. If you don’t want to fight just say that instead of making up bullshit. https://t.co/9gLt0iL7lS
— Rougarou (@RPrograis) January 6, 2023
Please please please let me fight Ryan Garcia or Teofimo López next.
— Rougarou (@RPrograis) January 5, 2023
Teofimo is right about one thing. It is up to the WBC to decide, but they’ll be deciding who’s next in line to accept the challenge of facing Prograis since he and Jose Ramirez aren’t interested in fighting him.
The next in line for Prograis is #5 WBC Sandor Martin, who lost a controversial 10 round split decision to Teofimo on December 10th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
If the World Boxing Council chooses to move Sandor down in their rankings due to his loss to Teo, the next highest-ranked contender is #6 Gary Antuanne Russell, and after him is #7 Ryan Garcia.
Teofimo will need to fight someone while he waits for the Haney vs. Lomachenko fight to take place because that match might be delayed until May.
Top Rank will likely choose to put Teofimo in with a soft touch while he waits for the dust to clear from the Haney-Lomachenko fight because his recent performance against Sandor Martin showed that he couldn’t be trusted against a good contender.
Teofimo will need to be matched against either a bottom-fringe contender or another second-tier guy like the one he fought last August against Pedro Campa.
Options for Teofimo:
- Sergey Lipinets
- Ivan Redkach
- Montana Love
- Steve Spark
- Jose Pedraza