By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn took a shot at Teofimo Lopez over his recent comment last week, predicting DAZN will stop showing boxing events within three to five years following the departure of HBO & Showtime.
Teofimo accurately predicted that Showtime would leave boxing, and now he’s making a second prediction about DAZN exiting, leaving the sport as well.
It’s unclear how it would benefit Teo for DAZN to stop showing boxing because if things don’t work for him on ESPN due to the inactivity and his up-and-down performances, he might need the streaming service if Top Rank gives him the boot.
Teofimo is a fighter that falls apart when he faces opposition that has talent and puts pressure on him. The only reason he beat Vasily Lomachenko is because he was injured & had a monstrous size advantage over him.
If Top Rank stops spoon-feeding Teofimo soft opposition and puts him in with a talented fighter like Subriel Matias or Arnold Barboza Jr, he’ll lose, and they’ll be stuck with the braggart, wondering what to do with him.
Hearn points out that Teofimo knows nothing about what he’s talking about with his prediction about DAZN and thinks he’s worth $10 million per fight yet can’t even sell out the small room at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Teo has only had one fight this year against the washed Josh Taylor, who was coming off a controversial twelve-round split decision win over Jack Catterall a year ago in Glasgow, Scotland.
Teofmo will take the remainder of the year off rather than returning to fight on December 9th for the prestigious Heisman date. That could have been Teo’s date, but now Regis Progais & Devin Haney will take the date and reap the benefits. Talk about your missed opportunities.
When Teo gets older, he’ll regret not taking the December 9th date and not staying active. He’s just another example of a fighter that gets an important win, a big payday, and then sits around for a year or two, replaying the memory in his head rather than getting off his backside and returning to work like normal hard-working folks.
Teofimo isn’t exactly the busiest of fighters, and he clearly deserved his second career defeat last year in his fight with Sandor Martin.
Hearn doesn’t care for Teofimo’s negative prediction about DAZN, as he thinks he’s dead wrong in this case, pointing out that the streaming service recently added 1.3 million subscribers.
Teofimo is on “another planet”
“Five? It’s a lot more than some give them,” said Eddie Hearn to Secondsout, reacting to Teofimo Lopez saying that DAZN has 3 to 5 years left in boxing before they stop broadcasting it on their streaming platform.
I give DAZN no more than 3 years left in Boxing. Maybe 5 just to prolong the damage! #TheTakeover
— Teofimo Lopez (@TeofimoLopez) October 17, 2023
“How long has DAZN been going now? Five years or four years? When they started, people gave them six months; people gave them a year. Now, all of a sudden, they’ve just done an event last week, and they have 1.3 million subscribers added just to last week.
“They’re a huge platform globally for boxing. I think he was also criticizing Top Rank and ESPN as well,” Hearn continued with his rant about Teofimo. “Teofimo Lopez, he’s on another planet.”
Obviously, Teofimo has no clue what he is talking about. He’s just babbling, with nothing to do, and throwing out whatever fluff comes to mind. If Top Rank cuts the cord on Teofimo one of these days when his career hits rock bottom, he might need DAZN if Hearn or Golden Boy is willing to throw him a lifeline.
“He’s a great fighter, but he has absolutely zero idea about commercial boxing,” said Hearn. “So much so that Top Rank can’t even get him in the ring. He was supposed to have that Heisman date [December 9th]. Can you imagine having a sensible conversation about Teofimo Lopez’s purse?”
One gets the sense that Teofimo vs. Ryan Garcia or Devin Haney fight WON’T be happening next February. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya wants to match Ryan against Teofimo, but it may prove impossible to negotiate that fight.
If Teofimo doesn’t take that fight and prices himself out with Haney, he could be stuck having to face his WBO mandatory Arnold Barboza Jr. if he doesn’t vacate the belt. That’s a much smaller money fight for Teofimo, and he’ll likely lose because this guy is all wrong for him.
“He boxed Josh Taylor at the [Madison] Garden, and they didn’t even sell it out in the small room [Hula Theater, with 5,600 seating capacity]. We only just sold out Teofimo against [George] Kambosos for the undisputed [lightweight] championship, but he thinks he’s worth $10 million a fight. This is one of the problems with boxing,” said Hearn.
