Teofimo Lopez promptly announced his retirement from the sport of boxing at the age of 25 following a career-best performance.
The Brooklyn native bounced back from a loss to George Kambosos Jr and two average showings at super-lightweight to beat former undisputed champion, Josh Taylor, over the distance in June.
At points in the fight, Lopez simply couldn’t be touched. It was the fighter fans came to know back when he dethroned Vasily Lomachenko at lightweight, and the win opened up plenty of opportunities.
Thankfully, his retirement was short-lived – when the WBO forced him to make a final decision, he confirmed he would fight on and keep the belt.
Since then he has been promoted to ‘super champion’, a move that gives him a little more freedom with his mandatory challengers as well as the opportunity to fight for the sanctioning body’s belt one division up.
And fans believe he could make welterweight no problem, that is going by some training footage doing the rounds.
In it, Lopez batter the heavy bag with impressive power, and looks in incredible shape for a man who doesn’t yet have his next fight date.
‘People don’t realise it’s hard to look that good on the bag,’ said one fan, whilst others said he could make 147 easily and trouble the top dogs with his power and speed.
Others commenting suggested they would like to see him in with Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, and current WBC champion, Regis Prograis.
All of those fights are options for Lopez, who is clearly keen on developing an already impressive legacy. Haney and Prograis are slated to fight on December 9 in San Francisco, pending final announcement, and ‘The Takeover’ will undoubtedly have one eye on the winner.