Teofimo Lopez is really talking big at the moment ahead of his comeback fight against Rolly Romero shortly. It doesn’t add up.
Lopez had shown in years gone by sublime ability but that is in chronic decline in recent years.
Long gone are the days where he had beat the likes of former pound for pound number one Vasyl Lomachenko.
In 2020 on points at the point.
He has been in decline for a bit the last two years to us.
Ahead of his up coming fight next month with Rolly Romero on August 22nd he is saying now and in the years ahead are his prime.
We don’t buy that. No way.
He said his last fight against Shakur Stevenson outclassing him was the best thing to ever happen but it wasn’t.
It was the worst thing to happen him, actually.
He was battered to a bloody pulp in the fight.
He abondoned his own boxing ability and fighting heart and guts that he had been so known for years before.
Beatings like that over a sustained 12 round period take something out of a fighter and the wear and tear and mental damage he acquired is real.
He knows it too.
That was a clinic that Stevenson of Newark in the US put on him earlier this year and usually a confidence builder for a boxer is needed after that.
He was widely outpointed by unanimous decision on the night and even a tough fight coming back straight away is great, spectators would respect him.
But to go on with a big puncher like Rolly Romero at 147 pounds is dangerous.
That said, it is an even fight.
It could go either way.
Romero can really punch and if Lopez has gotten old, even a little bit, over night from the Stevenson fight, Rolly will test that.
The fight is up at 147 pounds and should make Lopez fresher but there is no way he was boxing like he did years ago compared to that Stevenson fight.
That was not the Teofimo Lopez of old.
He was blaming the father for the defeat now is apparently working with him again still.
His win in 2023 over Josh Taylor is a few years ago now and he won on points that night, did Lopez, that’s maybe his last impressive fight.
The deterioration in Lopez was clear in 2025 vs American Arnold Barboza Jr.
In a fight he won by UD on points in New York but he was less than convincing in.
The card itself that night last year was infamously under par — but so was Lopez.
His hand speed and ability can put together some exciting combinations when he is focused but that is not often these days.
Teofimo Lopez is not in his prime and he is just trying to tell himself he is.
Boxing as a sport is coming into its prime as a sport shortly though. There’s a big difference.
The sport is coming back to the masses all the time and Lopez will try to be a part of it but there is no way he was at his best the last couple of fights in recent years.
No way.
That is the truth of it.
That said, Rolly Romero has some ring rust accumulated coming into next month.
The fight styles gel well too — so this is an entertaining scrap to look forward to soon in the US at 147 pounds.
No doubt about it.
Roll on.
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