Teofimo Lopez puts loss behind him, excited to begin next chapter of career at 140

Former unified lightweight champion headlines vs. Campa

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Former unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez has gone through dark times over the past year but found a silver lining in reflecting on his difficult moments.

“It’s only made me. It didn’t break me. I love that,” Lopez told Fight Freaks Unite this week. “The first step to success is failure. Mentally, I’m well prepared. It’s better than I’ve been since even before the (Vasiliy) Lomachenko fight. People love a champion but they love a comeback story, right?”

Indeed, Lopez hopes to write his own comeback story by eventually winning a world title at junior welterweight, where he will make his debut against Pedro Campa in a 10-rounder atop the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Saturday (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at Resorts Word in Las Vegas.

The fight will be Lopez’s first since the Brooklyn, New York, native lost a split decision and the unified 135-pound title in a huge upset to Australian mandatory challenger George Kambosos Jr. on Nov, 27 in New York in an action-packed fight of the year contender that saw Lopez down in the first round, suffer a bad cut and then knock Kambosos down in the 10th round.

The fight took its toll. Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs), 25, was hospitalized after the fight due to a torn esophagus that he first developed shortly before the bout in a life-threatening but undetected condition he fought with. He later had arthroscopic surgery on his wrist and elbow as well as treatment for the asthma condition he has boxed his whole career with.

“I had a ruptured esophagus, I had a rupture in my chest so I had airflow in my heart, airflow in my neck and during the fight I had airflow in my head,” said Lopez, who still marvels that he was able to make it through the fight.

“I’m proud of myself. I’m a true champion. I’m a warrior at heart. If I have to die in that ring, so be it, I will. I’m a fighter. God helped me with the heart. I pray to Him during those rounds and pray to Him during those moments to just take care of me — please let me get through that fight.”

“People love a champion but they love a comeback story, right?” — Teofimo Lopez

After getting medical treatment for the esophagus issue and healing from the surgeries, Lopez has pronounced himself at 90 percent physically ready as he heads into the fight with Campa (34-1-1, 22 KOs), 30, of Mexico, who is 7-0-1 since a seventh-round knockout loss to journeyman Carlos Jimenez in 2017.

“I took the time to step back,” Lopez said. “ESPN, Top Rank, I know they wanted me back a little bit earlier that August. However, I told them that I needed to really take the time to recover from everything that happened the past year, everything that I was going through in my personal life and in my boxing life. Now we have everything gathered and I’m focused on Pedro Campa, a Mexican veteran, (who) knows what he’s doing in the ring.

“I’ve been pushing myself to greater limits (in training). When I’m tired I think about my son and his beautiful smile and how he looks at me, and just in those moments, when I’m tired, I do two more, three more.”

It was more than just the actual fight with Kambosos that was difficult. It was the constant starts and stops to his training camp as the fight was moved from date to date after first being postponed when Lopez became ill with Covid-19. Ultimately, Triller, which stunningly won a purse bid to gain promotional rights, could not deliver on its contract and defaulted. That left second-place bidder Matchroom Boxing to finally put the fight on.

By that time, Lopez was breaking down mentally and physically.

“It affected me heavily,” Lopez said. “Last year it was like an eight, nine-month camp basically for one fight and one fighter and then the amount of postponements along with that, and then me getting Covid and I was up and down in weight. It was just excruciating on my body. I broke down my body to the fullest and by the time November came I was probably 10 percent, 20 percent healthy.

“These are the things that come with it I suppose and it’s something I learned. It was a mistake of mine to go in their unhealthy. However, I’m always someone who comes out to perform. I’m a performer. I got to do what I got to do. You know how they say — break a leg. That’s part of my performance whether ill or sick. No excuses.”

While Lopez strenuously maintains that he won the fight with Kambosos — a minority opinion, to be sure — he said he has accepted the loss and is looking ahead to sunnier days.

“We move forward from there,” Lopez said. “I’m moving up to 140 and looking at collecting all the belts again at 140 and becoming a two-division world champion.”

Lopez hopes to impress everyone with “an eye-catching” performance against Campa and put himself in position for a junior welterweight title shot no later than sometime next year.

“All I’m thinking about now is it’s against all odds. That’s who I am,” Lopez said. “I came into (professional boxing) after the (2016) Olympic Games against all odds and that’s where we’re at right now. This (Kambosos defeat) ain’t my first loss. This is my 21st loss (including amateur fights). That’s what prepares you in life. Every time I’ve lost I’ve always come back bigger and better.”

Lopez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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