TEOFIMO Lopez produced a high-quality display of movement and punch-picking to outspeed, outscore and generally outsmart Arnold Barboza Jr last night. While it wasn’t quite vintage Teo, he looked on his game, delivering the performance he and his team always felt was coming.
“We said what we were going to do. We were going to take over Times Square and we did that,” Lopez buzzed to Boxing News.
Competing as part of the historical Times Square event, Lopez claimed he and Barboza Jr produced Fight of the Night, which wasn’t hard considering what Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia served up later in the evening.
Lopez and his father had clearly studied Barboza’s style and felt he was tailor-made for their faster combinations and footwork. Arnold, 32-0, was deemed too slow to get in and out without receiving punishment for his troubles. Turns out Team Lopez was correct.
“To be honest, we knew that coming into this fight. We knew that he was too slow, he leans in too much. My speed was going to kill him and kind of take away his confidence from there,” added Teofimo, whose ‘Takeover’ mission, which properly started with a win over Vasiliy Lomachenko, is back on track.
“Jabs to the body is always going to be key. Jabs up top, trick him, change the levels and just being sharp. A lot of cardio, a lot of conditioning is what is going to give me that result right there.”
Turning his attention to next moves, Teofimo seemingly dismissed the likes of Haney or Garcia in favour of different, more sizeable challenges.
“Man, I want Jaron in his boots. Give me ‘Boots’, man. Give me the best guy at 147 so we can take that over too. I’m going to feel better, stronger, faster, smarter. I’m definitely going to be on my game even more because I know that he’s a tough competitor. I’ve seen him in the amateurs and I know that’ll be a great battle.”
Lopez even had time for a comical call-out of Ennis, involving a Spanish-speaking children’s cartoon favourite.
“I’m Dora the Explorer and I’m looking for boots. That’s one for me.”
But a much-discussed challenge to pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford is now officially off the table?
“It seems that way. It really does. It’s up to the champ himself, Terence Crawford. He doesn’t want to do it. So, you guys got to ask him why,” concluded Lopez.
