A FEW weeks after convincingly defeating Steve Claggett in his defence of his WBO 140-pound title, Teofimo Lopez is in a calm and reflective mood.
Speaking to ESPN’s Mark Kriegel before heading off on vacation to Italy, Teo spoke about how strong his Canadian opponent was.
“I have to say, I have never thrown so many punches in my career, but obviously with a bullfighter as fierce as Steve Claggett, you definitely have to be aggressive and give it your all,” he explained.
“But I think it’s important for me that the will is stronger than the skill, and that’s what happened that night. But honestly, I think I could go 15 rounds with this guy. We should bring it back!”
While Kriegel was quick to dismiss that notion, punching a target in the face every round can certainly help conserve energy. Maintaining the same physical threat and mental focus when facing one of his elite contemporaries would present different challenges.
“What I learned is that I shouldn’t fix things that aren’t broken,” Lopez mused. “I changed the material inside my gloves from the regular orthopedic gloves with Grant, I changed it to horsehair.
“I think the only guys who can really, like, be perfect at that are Cleto Reyes. There’s nothing to criticize about Grant, those are phenomenal gloves.”
Not satisfied with a materialistic answer, Kriegel followed up his initial probing question with some deeper, hidden thing Lopez might have learned from his match with Claggett.
“I think what I learned mostly about myself is that I still have the hunger to play this game,” Lopez replied.
“I still have a love for the sport, and I think that’s the most important part of it. When I expressed to ESPN on the background of Max Kellerman’s last show, I remember expressing that I don’t want to do this anymore, I don’t need to do this.
“I felt like I had done everything, so as a fighter, it put him in his element, and really wanting to retire, I think I lost a little bit of my fire at that moment. Especially after that incredible win over Taylor.”
The win over Josh Taylor was truly extraordinary. The win over Claggett was more realistic and Lopez knew the type of fight to expect. Facing a veteran contender blessed with a “rock chin” (Kriegel’s words), coming to Florida to create his own Rocky Balboa moment, sometimes the banana peels come up at unforeseen moments.
While many scorned the choice of Steve Claggett as a world title challenger, Teofimo put his faith in the wider promotion to get him the right fights at the right time.
That’s not something he’s always done with Top Rank, especially during that erratic stretch when he first almost crossed the line to Triller to fight George Kambosos. When that option fell through, the fight ended up on DAZN. Lopez now gives the impression that a similar move, in search of greener pastures, won’t happen a second time.
“We have phenomenal matchmakers, I would say Hall of Famers. Brad Goodman and Bruce Trampler, they know how to build a career.
“This is why we call it Top Rank, for that reason. Only the top people can rank at this level, and I learned during this process of the game to let the matchmakers take care of my career.
“For example, they created the careers of Miguel Cotto, Felix Trinidad, The Four Horsemen, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya. The list could go on and on.”
