Stephen Edwards says Teofimo Lopez needs therapist before trainer change

Edwards says new trainer cannot fix mid-fight lapses

Teofimo Lopez does not need a new trainer. He needs to stay composed once a fight turns and rebuild rounds behind his jab.

Stephen Edwards said as much in his mailbag at BoxingScene.  Lopez does not need a new voice barking instructions. He needs to steady what happens between rounds.  The swings in Lopez’s career, he believes, run deeper than foot placement or punch selection.

“I think he should start off with a therapist or sports psychologist,” Edwards said. “I say that respectfully.”

Lopez’s win over Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020 was high-level work. He held center ring, timed the jab, and ripped straight rights down the pipe. Edwards called it one of the decade’s best wins. What followed has been uneven.

George Kambosos Jr. beat him over twelve rounds in 2021, dropping him and dragging him into a fight where Lopez never found rhythm. At 140, the same pattern showed up against Sandor Martin. He had to grind through spots. Jamaine Ortiz gave him similar issues. Then came the sharp performance against Josh Taylor, where Lopez set the pace, stepped around the lead foot, and let his hands go in combinations.

“Either he’s on fire all night, or he’s struggling all night,” Edwards said. “He doesn’t start out struggling, figure out his opponent, then go on to victory.”

Top fighters make mid-fight corrections. They adjust the jab. They change the angle. They reset their feet and build from there. Lopez can look brilliant early, then lose the focus when the other man refuses to cooperate.

Edwards does see structural hurdles. Lopez’s stance and dimensions can make sustained pressure harder against longer fighters who keep him turning. Still, he made clear the larger burden falls on Lopez himself.

“If Teo does decide to move on to a new trainer, that trainer will really have his work cut out,” Edwards said.

You can change a corner. You can drill new combinations. None of it sticks if the fighter cannot settle when a fight gets tight.

Lopez has the tools. The hands are quick. The power is real. The instincts are there when he trusts them.

The next version of Teofimo Lopez will depend on whether he learns to adjust after round three, not just shine in the first two.