By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn is surprised that Teofimo Lopez chose to retire & vacate his newly won WBO light welterweight title after his victory over 140-lb champion Josh Taylor last Saturday night.
Like many people, the Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn expects Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs) to come out of retirement soon, but when he does return, he’ll be belt-less and just like any other contender at 140.
Hearn thinks that Teofimo may feel that he doesn’t need a title to validate him to give him credibility with the fans. Teofimo is popular & wealthy enough not to need a world title.
The fans are going to want to see Teofimo, and being a belt-holder is more of a hindrance because then he would need to fight the sharks in the 140-lb division, and he’s likely not good enough to beat the talented guys like Regis Prograis, Devin Haney, Jose Ramirez, Richardson Hitchins, and Subriel Matias.
Teo vacating his WBO title so soon could be worrisome for the sanctioning bodies, particularly after Errol Spence’s recent public comments about the alphabet governing bodies taking sanctioning fees from the champion’s purses.
Three percent of a fighter’s purse may not seem like a big number, but that’s a healthy chunk to give away. It’s almost like an additional tax on their earnings.
Unfortunately, there isn’t an alternative option to the four sanctioning bodies yet. If one is created to replace the four, that could limit the ability of lesser-known fighters to build their popularity by fighting for one of the numerous belts.
Fighters like Ryan Garcia don’t need a world title because he’s got 11 million followers on Instagram, and those people will purchase his fights on PPV regardless. Ryan is more of an influencer than a major boxer, so it’s not as important for him to fight for a belt.
“Unbelievable. I mean, I can’t believe it,” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype, reacting to Teofimo Lopez retiring and relinquishing his WBO light welterweight title.
“He said he’s retiring. I don’t know him well, and I presume he’ll fight again, but to vacate the belt, wow!
“Yeah, and that’s a bit of a worry for the governing bodies because, like before, without a world title, you’re actually not a lot, but he’s going, ‘I don’t need that world title. I’m still a lot.’
“You saw recently with Ryan Garcia against Gervonta Davis. No belt
on the line. Our biggest fight of the year with no belt. So I don’t know.
“You saw Errol Spence’s comments about sanction fees and stuff like that. For me, belts matter. I believe they do, but sometimes you get to a fight [that doesn’t need a belt]. Deontay Wilder against Anthony Joshua is one of the biggest fights in boxing. No belt.
“But Errol Spence against Terence Crawford; is it as big without all the belts in the undisputed tag? Quite possibly, but that fight is for the undisputed. I do think there’s a value for undisputed, and I think there’s a value for the belts.
I think there’s a value for unifying, but certain fighters become big enough maybe to, you know, Canelo. I don’t know,” said Hearn.
