Teddy Atlas has weighed in on Teofimo Lopez’ virtuoso performance against Josh Taylor this past weekend, branding the 25 year old a “genius.”
Lopez produced one of the best performances of his career to pry away Taylor’s WBO super lightweight world title at the Madison Square Garden theatre, despite many viewing him as an underdog going into the contest.
Speaking on his podcast THE FIGHT, Atlas commended Lopez’ polarising father / trainer Teo Sr, for letting his son fight on his own terms.
“He [Teofimo Sr] basically gave him no advice. He kept his mouth shut, which was the right thing to do, he and he left it up to the genius – his son.
Lopez said “I got him.” And he did, he had him figured out.
Teo controlled the rhythm of the fight, and he landed the more stunning, telling punches all night long. He hurt him several times, and he was never hurt by Taylor.”
After a series of flat performances stemming from his loss to George Kambosos Jr and a host of issues in his personal life, there were huge question marks over whether or not Lopez would be able to produce the goods against former undisputed champion Taylor.
However, ‘The Takeover’ proved he is still a huge player and one of the most talented boxers in the sport, and is now a two weight world champion and consensus top ten pound for pound.
With Ryan Garcia having moved back up to 140lbs and undisputed lightweight king Devin Haney expected to follow suit, Lopez – the new ‘man’ at the weight – can no doubt expect to find himself in some huge fights over the next 18 months – although he has announced that he’s currently ‘retired’.