It’s hard to be as wrong as I’ve been on Teofimo Lopez.
I was pretty sure in 2020 that he was a good young fighter but not good enough to handle the likes of Vasiliy Lomachenko in a championship-level fight.
I was equally sure in 2021, based on how wrong I’d been in the Lomachenko fight, that he’d basically be good enough to show up, glove up and beat up George Kambosos Jr.
And then, given how pedestrian he’d looked against Kambosos and Sandor Martin – and not withstanding a resume-padder against Pedro Campa – there was pretty much zero chance he’d be able to do anything worthwhile with an unbeaten and ambitious Josh Taylor.
Which means I’m probably not the guy to come to when it comes to Lopez.
Nevertheless, I am fairly certain of one thing as it relates to his imminent future.
Regardless of what he posts on Instagram or says during post-fight media scrums or elsewhere, there’s precisely zero chance he’s walking away from the game as a 25-year-old champion.
So help me, Mark Kriegel.
And even if he really and truly wants to walk away – which, for the record, I seriously doubt – there’s still a remarkably slim chance it happens once he recognizes just how much cash he’d be sacrificing.
The smart money suggests he made north of a million for Saturday’s fight in the small room at the Garden and it’s hardly hyperbolic to suggest his next purse will spike significantly given the blend of a long-running A-side persona and a new status as the man who beat the man at 140.
Tough way to make a living? Certainly.
But just as certainly lucrative to the guys at the top of the heap.
“Happens all the time that they talk about it, then realize reality,” former HBO blow-by-blow man Jim Lampley told Boxing Scene. “It is one of the harder paths toward making unique money.”
Given that reality, and absent an offer from Hollywood or some other prodigious cash stream, it seems more prudent then to focus on who might come next for Lopez.
It just so happens that one of the prime options is fighting this weekend.
WBC champ Regis Prograis will defend his strap in New Orleans against lightly regarded 20th-ranked contender Danielito Zorrilla, and, assuming nothing crazy happens, it’d be precisely zero surprise to hear the Lopez’s name come out of the Cajun’s mouth as his most-desired foe going forward.
That had also been a title held by Taylor before Saturday, given his defeat of Prograis in 2019.
Prograis and Lopez have already engaged in the combative chatter that precedes nearly every major fight announcement these days – with Prograis suggesting Lopez wouldn’t be gritty enough to handle Taylor, Lopez responding that Prograis only called out foes he was comfortable wouldn’t take his preferred purse split, and Prograis reengaging to offer to show Lopez just how comfortable he is.
Given their dual status as champions it’s certainly the most important to be made at 140.
But it’s not the only one.
Lopez’s elevation to the division’s throne room moves the needle on would-be fights with a handful of his former contemporaries at 135 pounds, including one looking for reinvention.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce Ryan Garcia 2.0.
The would-be “King” at lightweight was beaten (or exposed/embarrassed, depending on who you listen to) by Gervonta Davis at a 136-pound catchweight earlier this year and immediately declared his intention to rise to 140 in search of bigger men and bigger fights.
He’s been linked to the second banana likes of Adrien Broner and Rolly Romero since making the move, but Lopez’s title win presents an opportunity for an immediate return to top-level status.
Garcia claimed to want a fight with Lopez last year, but Lopez quickly threw shade at the idea with a suggestion that Garcia was simply making the call-out to keep his name relevant and wouldn’t believe his Oscar De La Hoya-promoted agitator was serious until a contract was delivered.
If it does come to that, promoter Bob Arum won’t be a hard sell.
“If (De La Hoya) comes to me and says let’s talk business,” he told Fight Hype TV, “then given our past relationships, I think it would be relatively easy to make that fight.”
Arum, though, may have another option he’d prefer to suggest.
He said during the Lopez-Taylor run-up that he’d be presenting Devin Haney with three options for the next outing – the first of which was a title shot at the Lopez-Taylor winner.
Both Lopez and the four-belt lightweight champ have been promoted by Top Rank and Haney has long suggested that making 135 is too much of a struggle to continue. It just so happens, too, that Lopez had the same four belts at lightweight before his loss to Kambosos, whom Haney then defeated twice to win and retain the jeweled cache before graduating to his own defeat of Lomachenko last month.
And when it comes to pre-fight enmity, they’ve got some of their own.
Similar to Prograis’ misguided suggestion that Lopez wouldn’t have the mettle to deal with Taylor, Lopez himself incorrectly claimed Haney didn’t have enough dog in him to handle Lomachenko.
Sounds like more than sufficient fighting words to us.
So, matchmakers, start your engines.
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This week’s title-fight schedule:
WBC super lightweight title – New Orleans, Louisiana
Regis Prograis (champion/No. 2 Ring) vs. Danielito Zorrilla (No. 20 WBC/Unranked Ring)
Prograis (28-1, 24 KO): First title defense; Held WBA title at 140 in 2019 (zero defenses)
Zorrilla (17-1, 13 KO): First title fight; Sixth fight in the United States (4-1, 4 KO)
Fitzbitz says: It says here that Zorrilla is taller and longer than Prograis and has a respectable KO percentage. But he can’t do the things Regis can. It’ll be fun but the champ wins. Prograis in 8 (90/10)
Last week’s picks: 1-1 (WIN: Edwards; LOSS: Taylor)
2023 picks record: 19-8 (70.4 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,269-416 (75.3 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body’s full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA “world championships” are only included if no “super champion” exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.