WBO president Gustavo Olivieri has confirmed that his organisation will launch an investigation into Teofimo Lopez’s unsavoury comments and behaviour this week.
The controversial super-lightweight world champion retained his WBO strap with a unanimous decision victory over Arnold Barboza Jr, his mandatory challenger, earlier this month.
Since then, Lopez, 22-1 (13 KOs), has expressed his interest in moving up to 147lbs, with a potential showdown against unified titlist Jaron Ennis remaining at the forefront of his mind.
But while he still reigns as the WBO king at 140lbs, the 27-year-old could quite easily be stripped of his title before chasing further accolades at welterweight.
Towards the end of last year, Lopez was asked in an interview with Broadway Joel whether he would prefer to lock horns with Terence Crawford or Gervonta Davis.
In response, ‘The Takeover’ said: “Whichever monkey wants to get the banana.”
Sure enough, the comment sparked a sizable uproar within the boxing community, as Crawford himself even condemned Lopez for his distasteful remark.
To make matters worse, Lopez was then widely accused of racism, once again, earlier this year, several days before WBO world lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis dethroned Denys Berinchyk.
Amid his fight week preparations, Davis received a box – containing bananas and a watermelon – following an anonymous delivery sent to his hotel room.
Initially, the 26-year-old accused his opponent for the racist act, before Lopez later revealed himself as the likely culprit via social media.
As it happened, the American posted a video of himself reacting to the incident while eating a banana, leading to speculation that he was solely responsible.
So because of that, and indeed his previous comment, Lopez should now be subject to an investigation carried out by the WBO.
“We will convene next week to address this matter and other relevant events,” Olivieri, the sanctioning body chief, wrote on X last week.
“Rest assured, we will carefully investigate any and all potential violations of our rules regardless [of] the fighter and proceed in accordance with due process guarantees.”
