By Adam Baskin: Teofimo Lopez was hanging around like a cave bat at today’s Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford press conference and was overheard trying to embellish his credentials by convincing Errol’s trainer, that his last opponent WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor was, in reality, the STILL undisputed 140-lb champion because he vacated his IBF, WBA & WBC titles and he’d never lost them.
It’s unclear what the ultimate was for Teofimo in trying to pass himself off as an undisputed light welterweight champion to Spence’s trainer.
The only thing that this writer can think is that Teofimo is trying to build his credibility with James so that he’ll persuade Errol to fight him next if he comes out victorious in his battle against Crawford next month. Spence likely won’t give Teofimo the time a day, particularly if he’s varnishing his credentials by saying he’s a two-division undisputed champion.
Teofimo Lopez: “He [Josh Taylor] never lost his belts in a fight. He just relinquished them,” Teo said to Fighthype.
Derrick James: “Oh, the guy that you just fought?”
Teofimo: “Yeah, he was still undisputed.”
It was humorous to watch, especially with the way that Derrick James looked at Teofimo when coming up with his backward logic. It was like, ‘What is this crazy dude on? Does he think I’m stupid? How can I get this wacky housefly away from me?’
James didn’t bother indulging Teofimo’s fantasy, playing with his crazy logic. The famous trainer quickly moved away from Teofimo, appearing to want to distance himself from this nonsense as fast as his feet could carry him.
The worse thing that James could have done was to start agreeing with Teofimo about him being the new undisputed 140-lb champion. If James did that, he’d never get Teofimo off him.
Derrick, isn’t this the type to suffer through listening to someone babble delusional nonsense, especially when it involves someone embellishing their false credentials based on make-believe, as Teofimo was doing?
