Teofimo Lopez Shifts Focus to Haney after Bill’s Scornful Words

Image: Teofimo Lopez Shifts Focus to Haney after Bill's Scornful Words
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Josh Taylor (L) and Teofimo Lopez (R) exchange punches during their WBO junior welterweight championship fight at The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on June 10, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images)
By KenWoods123 - 01/12/2024 - Comments

Teofimo Lopez seems interested in fighting Devin Haney after seeing Bill Haney’s lecture on social media, scolding him for chasing a fight against Terence Crawford rather than battling Dev in a unification.

Bill argued that Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs) doesn’t “deserve” a fight against the unbeaten three-belt welterweight champion Crawford, and he’s right.

The 26-year-old Teofimo has arguably lost two out of his last four fights since his victory over a much smaller, older, injured Vasily Lomachenko in 2020.

Teo got a gift against Sandor Martin, lost to George Kambosos Jr., and didn’t even try to avenge the loss. The only decent win for Teofimo in the last four years came against a washed Josh Taylor, who was fighting at the level of a fringe contender when he beat him.

Teofimo Answers Bill’s Challenge

This is Teofimo’s message on social media about Devin Haney: “The Haney’s are now on the radar! It’s about damn time. One fight at a time, baby! One fight at a time.”

Yesterday, Bill Haney told X about Teofimo trying to hustle a fight with Crawford: “You don’t want any of Crawford, and you don’t deserve none.”

If the Teofimo fight could be made, it would answer Bill’s prayers to give Devin a clash that would interest boxing fans while at the same time helping Dev’s marketability, such as it is.

Obstacles on the Road

Haney’s WBC mandatory defense of his 140-lb belt is now due against Sandor Martin. He will have to fight him or pay a step-aside fee to maneuver around him for a unification match against Teofimo.

Of course, Haney can always vacate his WBC title, but if he does that, his negotiations pull would be much less, and a fight with Teofimo would no longer be a unification.

Haney has no choice but to defend his WBC title against his inherited problem, Sandor Martin. That guy was originally Regis Prograis’ mandatory, but the WBC gave him an exception to take a big-money fight against Haney.

However, the WBC isn’t going to do that again because that would make a joke out of their organization and anger the promoters for Sandor.

If Haney takes the fight with Sandor, they will have to find a way to get fans interested in purchasing the match on DAZN PPV because this is NOT PPV-worthy, and neither was Haney-Prograis.