What happens to a prospect when they’re a prospect no more? Inevitably it is one of two things. Either the fighter who was once touted for glory falls desperately short, doomed to be the answer to trivia questions and the subject of “Whatever Happened To…” pieces for the rest of time. Or they fulfil everything we ever dreamed them capable of, turning that glimmer of world-conquering quality they once showed into a glowing light that illuminates the sport. Few prospects do both. Teofimo Lopez might be the first.
‘The Takeover’ had boxing scribes typing almost as quick as his slick fists to devise superlatives with which to describe his skills. We salivated as he sliced and diced good men like Diego Magdaleno and Masayoshi Nakatani. We nodded sagely as Lopez made good on the vast promise we bestowed upon him and knocked out IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey in two savage rounds.
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Then, in a great triumph for the fighter and an even greater one for those men with pens that never doubted him, he beat Vasiliy Lomachenko. That bright, precocious prospect was the unified lightweight champion, having beaten one of the greatest fighters of the decade to do it. We told you this would happen. It was the textbook trajectory of a boxing prospect. Immense promise, frenziedly-typed hyperbole, ultimate fulfilment.
But then the can’t-miss prospect missed in a big way. A disastrous display against Aussie underdog George Kambosos Jr saw him relieved of his newly-won titles at the first time of asking. Such was the galling nature of his defeat, his trainer and father Teofimo Sr had his methods brutally questioned in the aftermath. Like Icarus on paper wings, Lopez had flown too close to the sun before falling, singed and torn, back to Earth.
This is the sort of fall a lot of prospects never recover from. Once they realise they can lose, they never truly stop. History is littered with heavily-touted stars who took up high risk/low reward work as big name opponents, doomed to get slapped about on undercards for all eternity. But Lopez hasn’t landed there, at least not yet.
Lopez’s first fight back after the Kambosos defeat saw him move up to super lightweight. ‘El Brooklyn’ acknowledged that boiling down to 135 lbs had played a role in the Kambosos defeat. Correct or not, sometimes fighters just need something to cling to beyond their own shortcomings.
Lopez’s first fight at the new weight was smooth-sailing, an impressive seventh-round TKO over Pedro Campa. But when ‘The Takeover’ stepped up in class, he found things tougher. Sandor Martin, a former lightweight himself, gave Lopez a very tough fight. So tough in fact that some thought the Spaniard, who dropped Lopez in the second round, had done enough to win. But the split decision went in Lopez’s favour, netting him a WBO title shot.
The man he faces is also coming off a controversial points win. WBO, The Ring and lineal super lightweight boss Josh Taylor beat Jack Catterall by a hotly-disputed split decision over a year ago. Given the criticism he has faced since, he comes into this fight with as much to prove as Lopez.
Teofimo has a chance to be the one that prevails though. Lopez moved to a more hospitable weight after the Lomachenko fight. But there is evidence that Taylor is not in the best division for his needs. Documentary footage ahead of the Catterall fight showed him struggling to make the 140lb mark. He has stayed at the weight, initially chasing a rematch. But the fact he has stayed for this bout means Lopez could capitalise on a drained Taylor.
Lopez’s prospect days are over. But his days in the world class spotlight aren’t, at least not yet. A big performance and a victory against Taylor will put him almost on the same pedestal he occupied post-Lomachenko. Beating another respected and gifted world champion can effectively undo the Kambosos defeat. But a defeat could consign him to the scrapheap of prospects past. Lose against Taylor and the road back to contention will be long. Arguably too long, even for a fighter that bewitched us when dismantling a modern great in ‘Loma’
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
