Notebook: Teofimo elects to retain belt, calls Haney out to fight
Injuries shuffle Spence-Crawford PPV undercard and Saturday's Showtime event; honor for Shields; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Teofimo Lopez has decided to keep the WBO junior welterweight title and — no surprise — plans to end his short-lived retirement as he forcefully called for undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney to move up in weight and fight him, a demand Haney quickly responded to.
Lopez, the former lineal and unified lightweight champion, won the lineal/WBO 140-pound title via unanimous decision from Josh Taylor with a superb performance in an upset win June 10 in New York. Afterward, Lopez, who is going through a terrible divorce and custody battle for his son, said he was retiring.
Days later he texted WBO president Paco Valcarcel telling him he was vacating the title. But that text was not good enough as the WBO required a more formal letter abdicating the belt and on Tuesday it gave Lopez 24 hours — until 9 p.m. ET Wednesday — to notify it if he really did want to vacate or he wanted to retain the belt.
He elected to keep the strap.
“The game is over,” Valcarcel wrote on social media on Wednesday night shortly before Lopez’s deadline. “Teofimo Lopez just informed me in writing that he will retain his WBO jr. welterweight title.”