Teofimo’s Got a New Defense Mechanism: Whining

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By Nationvegas - 04/06/2024 - Comments

Teofimo Lopez took to social media to fire back at his critics who have been roasting him over his choice of #13 Steve Claggett for his next fight title defense of his WBO light welterweight belt on June 29th.

The Fighters He Rejected

Lopez (20-1, 13 KOs) claimed that the fighters weren’t willing to step up and fight him, which some fans find difficult to believe. Teofimo reportedly rejected these three opponents that were offered to him by his promoters at Top Rank:

– Raymond Muratalla
– Kenneth Sims
– Elvis Rodriguez

It’s perfectly understandable that Teofimo does not want to fight those three talents. However, rejecting these three in favor of 34-year-old Steve Claggett (38-7-2, 26 KOs) is a bad look on his part, making some believe that he’s lost his courage after his controversial win over Jamaine Ortiz last January in a fight that fans thought he should have lost by a wide margin.

Jamaine totally dominated Teofimo, schooling him from A to B all night. After that disastrous performance, it’s unsurprising that Teofimo has lost his nerve and is choosing to avoid talents like Muratalla.

Teddy Chimes In

“He beat a great fighter [Vasily Lomachenko in 2020], but since then, it’s been up and down like a rollercoaster,” said boxing expert Teddy Atlas to the Probox TV YouTube channel about Teofimo Lopez not looking great in some of his fights since his one big win in his career against an injured, one-armed, older and smaller fighter, Vasily Lomachenko.

“You start to ask yourself a question. Is he [Teofimo] a fighter that gets up for certain guys that he thinks there’s a fear level, a danger level, an urgency level, or does he fight down to to his competition?

“Here’s the tough one. Is he not as good as we thought he was? I think it’s fair. You start to wonder a little the way he’s struggled in some of these fights,” said Atlas.

Teofimo’s Salty Rebuttal

“Until someone has the cojones to risk their entire career to take my Ring Magazine lineal belt from me, the rest of you need to STFU and step on a Lego. Sincerely, The leader of the new era of Boxing,” said Teofimo Lopez on X, responding to criticism of his being inconsistent.