WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez and lightweight Jamaine Ortiz have a fight in the works for Thursday, February 8th, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Lopez vs. Ortiz fight is being finalized, according to Mike Coppinger, and will be taking place three days before the Super Bowl. Former WBC & WBO 140-lb champion Jose Ramirez was first offered the fight but opted not to take it.
If Ortiz doesn’t fade like he tends to do, Teofimo could be in a lot of trouble in this fight and might need help from the judges, as we saw in his fight with Sandor Martin. Ortiz is one of those guys that looks huge after he rehydrates.
Jamaine isn’t on the level of a Devin Haney, where he’ll rehydrate 25 lbs to 165 lbs and come in as a super middleweight, but he’ll likely have a size advantage over Teofimo on fight night.
Jamaine Ortiz gave Vasily Lomachenko a tough fight in October 2022, getting the better of him in the first half of the contest, but then gassing out in the championship rounds and losing a 10 round unanimous decision. In 2021, Ortiz fought to an eight round draw against Joseph Adorno.
The problem that Ortiz has had in the last couple of years has involved his gas tank. HIe tends to fade in the second half of his fights when matched against good opposition. A big part of that problem could be his huge size for the lightweight division.
He looks huge when he rehydrated for his fights at 135, and the size helps him in the first half of the fights, but then he gasses.
In Ortiz’s last fight, he bounced back, defeating Antonio Moran by a ten round unanimous decision last September. In May of last year, Ortiz defeated former WBC 130-lb champion Jamel Herring by a ten round unanimous decision.
There’s speculation that if Teofimo, 26, is victorious against the 27-year-old Ortiz, he’ll face IBF 140-lb champion Subriel Matias in the summer in a unification.
Matias (20-1, 20 KOs) and Teofimo were previously reported in talks for a fight. That’s a fight fans would like to see, as Matias’ popularity has gone sky-high after his stoppage wins over Shohjahon Ergashev & Jeremias Ponce.
It’s unknown why Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs) is choosing to defend against a 135-lb fringe contender rather than a fighter from the 140-lb division.
Casual boxing fans won’t care, but it would make more sense to give a contender from the light welterweight division a shot at Teofimo’s WBO 140-lb belt rather than a fighter who was beaten just last year by Vasily Lomachenko.
