Teofimo Lopez’s comeback continues Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
The undisputed former 135-pound champion is expected to face Sandor Martin in his second bout since he lost his title and a lot of respect to George Kambosos Jr. last November at the same location.
López (17-1, 13 KOs) stop Pedro Campa in seven rounds in August, his first fight as an official 140-pound athlete.
He has said that he will proceed to “take over” his new division.
“We all have a chance here,” Lopez said. “We all have a goal to do on Saturday night. My whole problem was, ‘How do we continue the takeover?’ We just need to keep winning. Whoever they put in front of us, we will defeat them.
The talented boxer won his first title when he destroyed Richard Commey in two rounds in December 2019 and was ahead of his counterpart Vasiliy Lomachenko – the king by the pound at the time – 10 months after just at just 23 years old, which makes him one of the most talented boxers. the biggest young stars in the sport.
Then, even faster when he reached the stratosphere, he fell back to earth. I lost in shock decided to part with Kambosos amidst some external distractions. And he is said to have battled air in his chest, a condition that at least one doctor said could have killed him.
However, he is in the process of rebuilding his reputation. He intends to prove what he already knows about himself.
“The only surprise that I think people will see is that I’ve improved a lot since the first loss of my career,” he said. “What I want to tell people here is that you never really lose. The only time you really lose is when you give up. When you say ‘no mom.’ That’s when you lose.”
Martin (40-2, 13 KOs) was a late replacement for Jose Pedraza, who pulled out of the fight three weeks ago due to illness. However, that does not mean that the Spaniard is an easy guy.
Southpaw from Barcelona becomes his own amazing disappointment, beat the highly respected Mikey Garcia by a majority decision last October to announce his arrival on the international scene.
He was about to make an almost definitive decision on Jose Felix this past April.
“I’m totally ready for this fight,” Martin said. “That’s why I came here. It was preparation done three weeks in advance, but I trained because I am an athlete 24/7, every day of the year.
“For me, this is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me in my career as an athlete. Basically, in my country, it’s very difficult to become a boxer and leave Spain. It took a pro career of 42 pro games over the course of 11 years to get a chance like this.
“As soon as I got the chance, I couldn’t say no. Teofimo Lopez. Madison Square Garden. Top rated. It’s about making history.”
As Lopez said, “We all have a chance here.”
