Sporting a dark and scary vampire look at the Ring awards on Saturday, Teofimo Lopez says he chose not to fight Subriel Matias because he didn’t want to be a “ladder” to help the recently beaten IBF light welterweight champion.
He says Matias won’t win the fight, and he doesn’t feel he has anything to gain by helping the former champion rebuild. Although Teo had been helped to rebuild after his loss, he saw no point in helping someone else in the same position he was in 2021.
Additionally, Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) says he wanted a “bigger guarantee” after Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said the fight was not PPV worthy. It is not clear what kind of money Teofimo, 27, was trying to get from Top Rank as his “insurance”, but an agreement could not be made.
Teofimo is now sitting on the shelf without a fight, and has already been out of the ring for seven months since his tougher-than-expected victory over heavyweight Steve Claggett on June 29 last year.
Lopez says Matias was the only option Top Rank gave him. It wasn’t “multiple options,” and he claims he “put his foot down” because he’s tired of the “take it or leave it” fights he’s been offered.
“I feel like it’s time for me to get bigger and better fights. Matias is trying to recover from the loss of Liam Paro in his home country,” said Teofimo Lopez to Fight Hub TV about why he turned down a fight against Subriel Matias. “I thought by doing that, why am I going to be the stool for that guy?
“He’s not going to win. Of course not. Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, said that the fight is not worthy of pay-per-view. I agree. Bob Arum, the president, said that. That that the other was involved in this situation, they really wanted to push PPV.
“I said that if that’s the case, I need insurance. “Give me a bigger guarantee, and then we can start talking about doing the fight. I’m ready to fight now. Things did not come out on time. They shot him down. They said I did it in bad faith for the fight, but in reality, they only gave us one option,” said Lopez.
In retrospect, Teofimo made the right decision not to take the fight with Matias (21-2, 21 KO) because there was an excellent chance he would have lost to him. Matias thrives against Lopez’s fighting style, and is on another level to George Kambosos Jr, who proved Teo’s kryptonite.
New Yorker Lopez can’t handle pressure fighters. We saw that against Kambosos, Jamaine Ortiz, and in the subsequent rounds of his 2020 upset victory over Vasily Lomachenko in 2020.
“There weren’t many options of fighters, and they didn’t want to do unifications,” said Teofimo on Top Rank. “They didn’t want to pay certain fighters x amount of dollars. I just don’t understand. I feel like a blow to me. I’ll take it as an opinion of mine as my market.
It’s understandable why Top Rank wouldn’t pay an arm and a leg to set up a unification fight for Teofimo against one of the other champions because it wouldn’t be PPV. He is not popular enough, and the other champions at 140 are not big names.
The light welterweight champions
– Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela
– Richardson Hitchins
– Alberto Puello
“You have to think about it as a business perspective, and it comes in this year,” said Teofimo. “Wouldn’t you rather see it on linear TV open to the public rather than the first year of coming back in 2025, I’m doing PPV? Why am I charging you? Guys, you’re going to watch us. It should be free. ESPN and the network, they have always his cut, and we leave it open to all.
“I just put my foot down. I beat ‘take it or leave it’ for you (Top Rank), and I can’t do it anymore,” said Lopez.
