By Brian Webber: Eddie Hearn says Teofimo Lopez is playing “games” with his talk of retiring and feels that he’s just looking to get paid after beating the #1 fighter in the 140-lb division, Josh Taylor.
Hearn notes that Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs) hasn’t vacated his WBO light welterweight title despite having said he would. That’s a signal that Teofimo isn’t retiring. Teofimo wants to be paid the big money that the other guys like Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis are getting.
However, he’s NOT a pay-per-view level attraction and can’t sell tickets. So if Top Rank pays Teofimo the same kind of money Ryan & Tank recently got for their mega-fight, they’ll go into the red. Teofimo has to prove that he can sell tickets & PPVs, and thus far, he hasn’t.
It’s challenging to make a case for Teofimo being underpaid when he couldn’t even sell out the small room at Madison Square Garden in New York for his fight with Josh Taylor.
The Hula Theater has a seating capacity of just 5,600, and Hearn notes that Edgar Berlanga is selling out the larger room at Madison Square Garden for his fight against Jason Quigley this Saturday night in New York.
While it’s great that Teofimo beat the former undisputed light welterweight champion Josh Taylor, it’s questionable whether that translates to him being a marketable fighter that can sell tickets, which he obviously failed to do, and he’s not a PPV-level fighter.
If Teofimo can’t sell out small venues like the Hula Theater or bring in PPV buys, he doesn’t rate getting the big money that other fighters are getting.
“He’s definitely being underpaid in terms of what others are getting but is he being underpaid in terms of market? Well, not market but commercial value because the reality is they couldn’t sell out the small arena there,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show about Teofimo Lopez not being able to sell out the Hula Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York for his fight against Josh Taylor.
“You’ve got Edgar Berlanga in a non-title fight, and he’s going to sell that place [the Madison Square Garden large room] out. It’s going to be crammed on Saturday night. So you can’t start saying he’s [Teofimo] worth all this money but only sells 3 000 tickets in a massive fight against Josh Taylor.
“But after the performance, don’t forget this guy [Teofimo] lost to George Kambosos. He came back with a couple of below-par performances, but now, he needs to be rewarded if he fights again, which we expect him to, for what he did, which was to beat arguably the number #1 in the division and come through.
“I don’t see him retiring. I see this as a little bit of sort of games if you like,” Hearn said about Teofimo. “You know, I found it strange when they said he’d vacated his [WBO 140-lb] belt. Obviously, we found out he hasn’t, and I don’t expect him to either. But definitely, now, he wants it his way, and he wants to make sure he gets paid,” said Hearn about Teofimo.