Teofimo Lopez says his goal tonight is to “Terrify” everybody with his performance in defending his WBO light welterweight title against Jamaine Ortiz at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Lopez expects to unleash the new version of himself tonight, one that will look so impressive that fans and the media will talk about him like they used to five to seven years ago before George Kambosos Jr. got to him.
There’s no question that the 26-year-old Teofimo must look good to increase his chances of landing a mega-fight against Terence Crawford next. He didn’t look nearly good enough in his last clash against a washed-up Josh Taylor in June.
“Fear Factor: Lopez Warns Rivals
Talking about Satan, Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) believes he’s going to put the scare in “every single person” with the way he defeats #11 Ortiz (17-1-1, 8 KOs) in their headliner on ESPN. The event starts at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+.
“They [other fighters] will not take this fight after what I do with Jamaine Ortiz. I’m not even in my prime,” he added. “I can say this, people that fear Satan – he got nothing on me. I’m going to terrify every single person,” said Teofimo Lopez to Sky Sports, talking about his belief that he’ll scare away other fighters with his performance tonight against Jamaine Ortiz.
We haven’t seen Teofimo “terrify” people since his second-round knockout win over Richard Commey in 2019, and that’s a long time to go between scary performances.
The Devil is in the Details
Teofimo’s comment about “Satan” is obviously designed to create interest in his fight, but it’s also his hope to revitalize his career because he’s lost momentum, particularly the popularity he had during his best years from 2018 to 2020.
Teofimo is still young and capable of making changes in his fighting style to recapture what he had during the zenith of his short career.
However, he’s got to stay consistent and perform well in each fight, and not have the drop-offs that we’ve seen in his clashes against George Kambosos Jr., Sandor Martin, and Pedro Campa.
It’s too late for Teofimo to retool and become the fighter he’d been, but the odds are going against him achieving that. If there was a duplicate version of Teofimo from 2018, he could destroy Jamaine Ortiz tonight and get the big fights that he wants.