By Adam Baskin: Teofimo Lopez posted on social media explaining why he’s retiring, saying he doesn’t want to make “deals with the devil,” which would seem to be code language that he wants to be paid more money.
Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs) saying he’s retired could be a power play to push his Top Rank promoter to pay him much more dough for future fights.
What could be a dead giveaway that this is a Tyson Fury-esque style retirement is that the 25-year-old Teofimo still hasn’t vacated the WBO and Ring Magazine 140-lb titles he won last Saturday night with a twelve round unanimous decision against the over-the-hill, ring-rusty Scottish fighter Josh Taylor.
The belts haven’t been vacated by Teo, and he’s not mentioned giving them up. When a fighter is serious about retirement, they vacate their belts. This would appear to be a pseudo retirement on Teofimo’s part, a move to get Top Rank to offer him massive money for his next or future fight.
“I’m not here to do deals with the devil. What a relief! Retired at the Top. Thank you, Boxing for the amazing life you’ve provided for myself and my entire loved ones! 🥊✨🏆✨🏆” said Teofimo Lopez on Instagram explaining why he’s retiring.
Promoter Bob Arum isn’t risk taking a financial bath for Teofimo’s fights if it’s NOT expected to be a substantial money-making clash, and the Josh Taylor bout wasn’t a massive one. Hence, Top Rank stuck it in the small room in the 5,600-seat Hula Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York rather than the big room, with a 19,500-seat capacity at the same venue at MSG.
Josh Taylor isn’t a big name in the U.S., and he’d looked shot to pieces in his previous contest 16 months earlier against Jack Catterall, winning a controversial decision in Glasgow, Scotland, in February 2022.
If Teofimo expected Top Rank to pay him huge money for a fight with Taylor, he was kidding himself. It wasn’t a PPV-level fight to attract interest from the fans.
NONE of Teofimo’s fights have been the massive variety since his victory over Lomachenko, and you can argue that he’s been playing it safe, choosing not to rematch Loma. Teofimo wouldn’t rematch Kambosos to try and avenge his defeat.
Choosing NOT to take the rematches with Lomachenko & Kambosos was a wrong career move for Teofimo.
Teo’s last four fights
- Pedro Campa
- Josh Taylor
- Sandor Martin
- George Kambosos Jr
If this is only about money for Teofimo, it wouldn’t be a shock because, after his win over Vasyl Lomachenko in 2020, he went back & forth with his promoters at Top Rank, choosing not to make a lucrative rematch and instead taking what should have been an easy defense against George Kambosos Jr.
Teofimo rejected the money offered by Top Rank for the Kambosos fight and went the purse bid route.
Teo lost a year of his career awaiting the Kambosos fight, which wasn’t considered a marketable bout because the Aussie was a complete unknown to casual U.S. fans then.
