After the Fight: Teofimo Lopez’s Bad Day at the Office

This was supposed to be the moment that WBO & Ring Magazine junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez (20-1, 8 KOs) would elevate his profile even more, making him a bonified star. It was all there: The fight was on Super Bowl week, the advertisement for the event was plastered all over the Mandalay Bay, and Top Rank put all of their shoulder program resources towards providing a ton of content for the fight. So, what happened? Lopez had another performance where he didn’t look great following a fighter where he did.

The first time was after capturing the undisputed titles at lightweight against Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2020, then laying an egg against George Kambosos Jr 13 months later, which cost him all of his titles. Lopez had an excellent performance against Josh Taylor in June but then had a lackluster one against Jamaine Ortiz last night. That’s not to take any credit from Ortiz, who fought smart, but Lopez couldn’t do some of the simpler things against a guy he should have been able to.

Coming into fight night, the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino was buzzing, and the crowd of 6,206 was mostly pro-Lopez and expected to see a show. Lopez always being the showman, his ring walk was one of the best I’ve seen in a while. It was a circus theme that looked like it was taken from a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey show. Lopez came out with a custom robe and top hat, which added to the already great intro.

Now, it was time to fight, and one thing that immediately came to my attention was Ortiz’s approach of not being the aggressor and strictly utilizing his counterpunching abilities. Although Ortiz had a ton of success counterpunching and using his feet to move around the ring, no one knew if he could do it for 12 rounds as he is known for fading late in his fights. Throughout the first ten rounds, Ortiz moved well, while Lopez could not find his rhythm and ended up chasing Ortiz instead of cutting the ring off. You would think that someone at Lopez’s level wouldn’t have issues doing something as basic as cutting off the ring, but he did, and he looked frustrated. It reminded me of the boxing lesson Dmitry Bivol gave Saul Canelo Alvarez in their May 2022 fight.

Although Ortiz was seeing success, it was unsure how the judges would look at him moving around the ring and not throwing too many punches. Then came the championship rounds, and it seemed that Ortiz took his foot off the gas. Was he fading, or did he think he had the fight in the bag? Whatever it was, that plan ended up backfiring as, looking at the judges’ scorecards, all three gave the championship rounds to Lopez, which cost Ortiz the fight.

During the in-ring post-fight interview, Ortiz shared his disappointment with the decision. “I just felt like he couldn’t hit me. I was making him miss all night. I was countering. I was making him miss. I was hitting him with the jab and the check hook. I just felt like he wasn’t landing any shots on me.”

Although it wasn’t a great fight for either competitor, Lopez came out victorious even though it was a bad day at the office.

What’s next for Teofimo Lopez?

Lopez is unpredictable in and out of the ring. During the media scrum, he announced that his next fight would be in Honduras, where his family is from. If he stays true to that, none of the big names will be fighting him there, and Lopez will likely make a voluntary title defense against a top-20 fighter. He’s earned a homecoming, but let’s hope it’s later this year, as an active Lopez is much better than an inactive one.

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is the founder of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms to include online, network TV and promotional companies. He is an American Public University alumnus and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, contributed to FanSidedMMA and ProBoxTV.

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