Teofimo Lopez: Phony retirement, Ortiz defense, calling out Crawford

Junior welterweight champion fights amateur rival Thursday night

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When Teofimo Lopez shockingly announced his retirement from boxing days after his brilliant decision victory against Josh Taylor, who he handled in stunningly easy fashion to win the lineal/WBO junior welterweight title and strip him of his undefeated record in June, few believed that he was indeed done with boxing.

Yes, he was disenchanted by what he viewed as too small of a purse for the fight ($2.3 million) and also was dealing with the emotions of going through a divorce and custody battle over his baby son.

But already a two-division lineal champion at 25 and on the cusp of his biggest paydays, it seemed incomprehensible that Lopez, with such charisma, star power and tremendous talent, would simply walk away from the sport.

So, it came as no surprise to anyone that he declined to vacate his title when pressed by the WBO for a formal notification and decided to, of course, fight on — although he did take off the rest of 2023 after three fights in 10 months and a desire to rest his body and spend time with his son.

But now Lopez, the former unified lightweight champion, is back to business for his first 140-pound title defense against amateur rival Jamaine Ortiz with aspirations to challenge unified welterweight champion and pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford.

Lopez and Ortiz will meet in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Thursday (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 10:30 p.m. ET) at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, which is packed with sports fans for Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium.

In the 10-round lightweight co-feature, 2022 Fight Freaks Unite prospect of the year Keyshawn Davis (9-0, 6 KOs), 24, a 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist from Norfolk, Virginia, faces by far the best opponent of his career in former lightweight and junior lightweight titlist Jose “Sniper” Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs), 34, of Puerto Rico, who is dropping down from junior welterweight.

Lopez, who sounded very excited to be preparing for the fight when he spoke to Fight Freaks Unite, admitted that he knew he was not really retiring for good when he made his announcement last summer.

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