Teofimo Lopez has offered his thoughts on a rematch with Rolando Romero after dethroning ‘Rolly’ with a majority decision victory last weekend.
Despite what the scorecards might suggest, it was a largely convincing performance that saw ‘The Takeover’ become a three-division world champion in Las Vegas.
Other than in the fifth-round, when he seriously hurt Lopez with an overhand right, Romero was rarely doing enough to gather any kind of momentum.
In fact, many felt he let Lopez off the hook and, from round six onwards, it became increasingly difficult to envision ‘Rolly’ keeping hold of his WBA title.
It therefore came as no surprise when Lopez had his hand raised, despite coming off a wide unanimous decision defeat to Shakur Stevenson in January.
In terms of what could be next, then, the 29-year-old has expressed his interest in unification matches with Devin Haney or the winner of Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn, which takes place at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on September 12.
In any case, Lopez has told Ariel Helwani that he sees no reason to entertain a welterweight rematch with Romero.
“You’ve got to do more than that to have a rematch. I think that’s where he messed up – he didn’t capitalise on [his success in round five]. He allowed me to dictate and he, as the champion, didn’t show any progress in the later rounds.
“It’s about ring generalship, and he did not possess that. Even his trainer, [Ismael] Salas, was like: This is not how you enter the Hall of Fame.
“That, right there, lets me know everything I should know. [But] maybe the [majority] decision makes people think otherwise.”
While hoping for a unification bout, Lopez may be forced to face WBA mandatory challenger Jack Catterall, who claimed his ‘regular’ belt with a unanimous decision victory over Shakhram Giyasov in May.
