Notebook: Teofimo slaps Barboza at presser as emotions run high
Details on what happened with Murtazaliev-Ortiz no go; WBA clarifies Usyk's mandatory; Harper hometown defense; Quick hits; Show and tell
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There was plenty of verbal heat between the competitors who will square off on Turki Alalshikh’s Ring magazine pay-per-view card on May 2 outdoors in New York’s Times Square, but it was lineal/WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez and interim titlist and mandatory challenger Arnold Barboza Jr., who turned things physical.
They were on the second stop of their two-city press tour on Monday in Los Angeles, a week after having faced off in New York to kick things off, and they clearly are sick of each other.
After jabbering with each other during the news conference, often in an unintelligible manner because they repeatedly talked over each other, it came as little surprise that their irritation spilled over during the obligatory/cliché face off following the formal program.
As they got close, Barboza flipped the cowboy hat Lopez was wearing off his head. Lopez responded by shoving him twice in the chest and Barboza shoved him back as Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya, Barboza’s promoter, stepped between them.
The lackadaisical security guards, however, left an opening though and Lopez charged at Barboza and flicked a hard left-handed slap that landed on Barboza’s face before they were separated in a more serious manner.
And so it goes for the fight that will open the tripleheader, which will also include Ryan Garcia against Rolando Romero (16-2, 13 KOs), 29, of Las Vegas, for the vacant WBA “regular” welterweight title in the main event and Devin Haney, the former undisputed lightweight champion and WBC junior welterweight titlist, taking on former unified junior welterweight titleholder Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs), 32 of Avenal, California, in the co-feature as they both rise to welterweight for a fight announced at 144 pounds.