Via Craig Page: Teofimo Lopez managed to make Sandor Martin flinch in their confrontation this week by shouting at him. Teofimo (17-1, 13 KOs) is no longer afraid of opponents after his loss to George Kambosos Jr in 2021 and chose not to try to avenge the loss.
Teofimo will fight Martin (40-2, 12 KOs) in a Heavyweight Boxing promo this Saturday, December 10, at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The original plan was for Teofimo to fight aging former featherweight Jose Pedraza, who, at this point in his career, was unlike the boxer he’d fought while campaigning at 126th. That match will be a piece of cake for Teofimo.
If Teofimo wins this match, he wants a title against 140lb WBO champion Josh Taylor. He also has the highest Rated, so it’s a duel. WBC champion Regis Prograis asked Teofimo to fight him for the title, but Teo didn’t seem interested in going that route.
Unfortunately for him, Pedraza withdrew from the fight due to illness and was replaced by Spaniard Sandor Martin. This is the boxer who retired Mikey Garcia last October.
Sandor, 29, has the skill and slick style to beat Teofimo just as he did with Mikey Garcia. If Teofimo loses this fight, it will be the second of his last three and a signal to Top Rank that they need to start looking at weeding out the fading bragging boxer.
The last thing Top Rated needed was another type of boxer from Adrien Broner, who could only speak well but couldn’t compete with good opponents.
Interestingly, there’s not a lot of buzz about Teofimo’s battles compared to his competitions before losing to Kambosos.
You could argue that the reason for that is that a lot of boxing fans gave up after Teofimo lost to Kambosos and blamed his defeat on injuries. In hindsight, it would have been better for Teofimo to admit that Kambosos was smarter than him.
Teofimo knocked it out of the 135 lb category after his loss to Kambosos, and since then, he’s had a 140th fight against a little-known low-level boxer named Pedro Campa last August. .
Like the defeat to Kambosos, Teofimo was beaten up by Campa and frequently beaten by Campa. However, Campa’s lack of strength kept Teofimo fighting long enough to score the knock-out in the seventh inning.
“We wanted Josh Taylor right away, but he’s up against Jack Catterall. So let’s fight that guy Mikey Garcia, and we negotiated with him,” said Teofimo Lopez Sr. My mixtape.
