Notebook: Lopez excited for Heisman night spotlight vs. Martin
Barboza-Pedraza on tap; BetUS show; Quick hits; Show and tell
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
When Top Rank and ESPN began putting on annual boxing cards at Madison Square Garden in New York immediately following the network’s presentation of college football’s Heisman Trophy, the exciting Teofimo Lopez was a natural for the show and he has not disappointed.
The former unified lightweight champion has appeared twice on those undercards and was sensational.
In 2018, he was a 10-0 fast-rising prospect when he obliterated Mason Menard with a right hand in 44 seconds of what was supposed to be a step-up fight on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Jose Pedraza undercard inside the Hulu Theater at MSG. Menard went to sleep and Lopez struck the Heisman pose.
Lopez was back again on Heisman night in 2019, this time in the main arena on the Terence Crawford-Egidijus Kavaliauskas undercard, and he scored a sensational second-round knockout of Richard Commey to win the IBF lightweight title and posed again.
Since then, Lopez beat Lomachenko to unify lightweight titles and then lost the belts by close decision to George Kambosos Jr. in an action-packed split decision at the Hulu Theater last November, after which Lopez wound up in the hospital due to a serious issue with his esophagus that he went into the fight with.
Now Lopez is healthy and back on the winning track after moving up to junior welterweight and knocking out Pedro Campa in the seventh round in August to set up his Heisman night appearance on Saturday (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET). The four-fight broadcast begins immediately following the presentation of the Heisman Trophy.
Lopez will take on former European champion Sandor Martin in a 10-round WBC 140-pound final elimination fight that will make the winner the mandatory challenger for Regis Prograis, who won the vacant title by 11th-round knockout of Jose Zepeda on Nov. 26.
As always, Lopez’s goals are to win and to entertain.
“It’s all about giving the fans what they really want, which is entertainment,” Lopez said. “We are in the entertainment business, not the boxing business. That doesn’t mean I have to showboat like crazy. However, it’s all about giving the fans what they really want.”
While Prograis’ will be ordered to face current mandatory challenger (and former unified titlist) Jose Ramirez, the Lopez-Martin winner will be next in line.
That Lopez has the opportunity to earn another title shot and to do so on Heisman night is very meaningful to the 25-year-old Brooklyn, New York native.
“I feel like I’m in a dream, like you have to pinch me or something,” Lopez told Fight Freaks Unite. “It’s the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden. That’s where legends are born. They’re not made there, they’re born there and I think being the headliner and having all these great young prospects on the undercard (Jared Anderson, Keyshawn Davis and Xander Zayas), I’m truly appreciative of everything.
“It’s been a long journey and lot of hard work. Blood, sweat and tears to get to this point to be the headliner on Heisman Trophy night. I’m truly thankful. I can’t wait. I’ve been busing my ass, busting my butt training hard, working hard, harder than ever because I understand the magnitude of this fight and what it’s going to do for me in the beginning of 2023.”
Lopez (17-1, 13 KOs) was initially scheduled to fight Pedraza but a little less than a month ago he became ill and withdrew from the fight. As it happened, soon after the fight had been signed, the WBC mandated Lopez-Martin as a final eliminator at its recent annual convention.
Martin (40-2, 13 KOs), 29, had been training for another fight and when Pedraza dropped out, the match was made ahead of when either camp thought it would happen.
“Luckily we were able to have Sandor Martin, who says he has been training. This guy is not coming in on three weeks’ notice. He’s been in the gym, so I don’t want to hear excuses when we beat this guy, when we beat this clown and send him back to Spain, humbly.”
Pedraza is right-handed and Martin is left-handed, but Lopez said he will have no issue making the change.
“You guys have seen what I do with southpaws (like Lomachenko). I love southpaws, really,” Lopez said. “I am actually more comfortable (fighting) southpaws and I am orthodox (opponents).”
In Martin, Lopez will face an opponent filled with confidence. Two fights ago, at 144 pounds, he traveled to Fresno, California, in October 2021 and pulled a huge upset, beating four-division titleholder Mikey Garcia on his turf via majority 10-round decision to send him into retirement.
Martin will be aiming for another upset.
“I am absolutely ready for this fight,” Martin said at Thursday’s pre-fight news conference. “That’s why I have come. It was a preparation that was done on three weeks’ notice, but I had been training because I’m 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 be a boxer and come out of Spain. It’s taken a professional career of 42 professional fights across 11 years to have an opportunity like this. As soon as I got the opportunity, I couldn’t reject it. Teofimo Lopez. Madison Square Garden. Top Rank. It’s about making history.
“I’ve come to win. I respect Teofimo Lopez very much and the career that he’s had as a professional athlete. I respect him a lot as a boxer. I only hope that we deliver a great fight and we come out the ring healthy on Saturday. This is a special moment for me. But I don’t look beyond this fight. At the end of the day, he and I live in two different worlds. He lives in the world of entertainment and I live in the boxing world. When he was recording interviews, watching the Knicks and shopping, I was training. That’s the difference you will see on Saturday.”
Lopez said he watched highlights of Martin’s win over Garcia and sounded unfazed about what was in front of him.
“He retired Mikey Garcia but he’s not going to retire Teofimo Lopez, I promise you that,” Lopez said, going on to detail the kinds of fights he wants after Saturday.
“I’m very excited that the winner (of the vacant WBC title) was Regis Prograis,” Lopez said. “This guy talks a lot. I want his world title. I want everybody’s world title. I want Josh Taylor’s. These are the guys we’re looking forward to fighting next year and beyond and putting on a show at 140.”
Barboza, Pedraza collide
Junior welterweight contenders Arnold Barboza and Jose Pedraza, a former lightweight and junior lightweight titlist, will square off in the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN co-feature of the Oscar Valdez-Emanuel Navarrete vacant WBO junior lightweight title bout that is slated for Feb. 3 at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, sources told Fight Freaks Unite. The card has not yet officially been announced.
Barboza (27-0, 10 KOs), 31, of Los Angeles, had hoped to face Teofimo Lopez on Saturday night but was rebuffed, so he will instead face Puerto Rico’s Pedraza (29-4-1, 14 KOs), 33, the opponent Lopez was originally schedule to fight before becoming ill and withdrawing from the bout last month.
Barboza is coming off a clear unanimous decision over then-undefeated Danielito Zorrilla in July.
Pedraza is 0-1-1 in his most recent highly competitive fights, a 12-round decision loss to former unified junior welterweight titlist Jose Ramirez in March and 10-round split draw with former lightweight titlist Richard Commey in August.
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked the main events of Saturday major cards: welterweight titlist Terence Crawford’s defense against David Avanesyan, the junior welterweight title eliminator between Teofimo Lopez and Sandor Martin and Josh Warrington’s mandatory featherweight title defense against Luis Alberto Lopez. As always, we also took viewer questions and comments! Check out the show here:
Quick hits
Weights from Omaha, Nebraska for Saturday night’s BLK Prime/Integrated Sports PPV card (9 p.m. ET): Terence Crawford 146.6 pounds, David Avanesyan 146.8 (for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title); Cris Cyborg 154, Gabrielle Holloway 154.6; Arnold Khegai 126, Eduardo Baez 125.8; Jeremiah Milton 250.8, Dajuan Calloway 387.6; Steven Nelson 174.2, James Ballard 175.6; Edel Gomez 175.8, Joseph Aguilar 175.6; Boubacar Sylla 144.6, Javier Mayoral 144.6; Alan Garcia 135, Eduardo Pereira Dos Reis 134.4; Robert Rodriguez 121.6, Jose Lopez 120.4; Alton Wiggins 155.4, Phillip Carmouche 155.4.
Weights from New York for Saturday’s Top Rank ESPN card (9 p.m. ET): Teofimo Lopez 139.2 pounds, Sandor Martin 139.8 (WBC junior welterweight eliminator); Jared Anderson 239, Jerry Forrest 228.2; Xander Zayas 153, Alexis Salazar 153.8; Keyshawn Davis 134.8, Juan Carlos Burgos 134; Joe Ward 174.4, Frederic Julan 175.8; Damian Knyba 245.8, Emilio Salas 217; Tiger Johnson 141, Mike O’Han Jr. 141.6. The Bruce Carrington-Juan Tapia featherweight bout was canceled because Tapia was not cleared by the commission. The Jahi Tucker-Ivan Pandzic welterweight fight was canceled because Tucker missed weight.
Weights from Leeds, England for Saturday’s Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN (4 p.m. ET): Josh Warrington 125.3 pounds, Luis Lopez 124.3 (for Warrington’s IBF featherweight title); Ebanie Bridges 117.8, Shannon O'Connell 117.4 (for Bridges’ IBF women’s bantamweight title); Felix Cash 166, Celso Nevez 166.2; James Metcalf 153.6, Courtney Pennington 153.1; Koby McNamara 120.1, Nabil Ahmed 120.3; Shannon Courtenay 124.7, Gemma Ruegg 124.8; Cory O'Regan 137.8, Antonio Rodriguez 136.7; Hopey Price 123.2, Jonathan Santana 123.8; Junaid Bostan 155.9, Athanasios Glynos 155.8; Rhiannon Dixon 134.8, Kristine Shergold 134.3.
Ilunga Makabu will make his third WBC cruiserweight title defense when he faces Noel Mikaelyan on Jan. 21 at the Casino Miami Jai-Alai in Miami, promoter Don King announced on Friday. “These are the two best cruiserweights in the world,” King said. “We are going to give Miami and boxing fans across the country another action-packed boxing card. Makabu will show the world once again why he is No. 1 and Mikaelyan is out to prove he’s the best.” King signed Mikaelyan (26-2, 11 KOs), 32, of Germany, last month, telegraphing this fight. He has won three fights in a row since a competitive decision loss to Mairis Breidis in 2018 in the World Boxing Super Series. Makabu (29-2, 25 KOs), 35, a southpaw from Congo, last boxed in January, winning a split decision over mandatory challenger Thabiso Mchunu, who he knocked out in a 2015 nontitle bout.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced he has signed junior lightweight Thomas Mattice (20-3-1 15 KOs), 32, of Cleveland. He is coming off an upset 10-round decision over then-unbeaten Christian Tapia on Nov. 11 on the Montana Love-Stevie Spark card Matchroom put on in Cleveland. “I’m very excited to sign with Matchroom,” Mattice said. “This is the perfect platform for me to showcase my talents and chase down world titles. I’m now fighting in the division I should’ve been, so I’m here now and planning to be the face of it. I came up short a few times in fights that I should’ve won, but that’s in the past; 2023 is going to be the best year of my career as and I’ll make my presence felt at 130 pounds.”
Show and tell
It is a Teofimo Lopez fight weekend, which usually means we are in for something entertaining. The former unified lightweight champion, of course, headlines the Top Rank on ESPN card Saturday night when he takes on Sandor Martin in a WBC junior welterweight title eliminator at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Lopez has made a big enough impression in the sports world that Upper Deck did a deal with him and featured his rookie cards in some of its 2021 products as well as in 2022. Here are a few of the rookie and second cards in my collection.
Lopez-Martin photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Crawford-Avanesyan photo: Tom Hogan/BLK Prime; Warrington-Lopez photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
Please upgrade your subscription here: https://danrafael.substack.com/subscribe
Thank you so much for your support of Fight Freaks Unite!
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danrafael1/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanRafael1
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanRafaelBoxing
Lopez prograis that’s a fight I want to see in the future
Err... which fight was Sandor Martin training for? I haven't been able to find the name of the opponent via Google search and he isn't named on any of the many boxing websites I've checked out.
In addition, Martin himself says he was simply in the gym and doesn't mention an opponent.
Being in the gym is totally different to actually training for an actual opponent - the training is obviously not as focussed and not as intense.
Therefore it seems that in fact Sandor has only had 3 weeks of proper training (i.e. focussed on an actual opponent) and this short time includes having to relocate to the US - after a transatlantic trip (either way) it often takes several days, sometimes a week, for an athlete to get back to feeling normal.
I realise that Lopez will have had to change his plans to focus on Sandor Martin for this short period of 3 weeks, however he had already completed a more intense period of training prior to Pedraza pulling out, and he also hasn't had to go through a transatlantic relocation.
Sandor isn't making any excuses at this point however Lopez imo certainly has the advantage in terms of preparation and should win comfortably.