Teofimo Lopez and Jamaine Ortiz are now confirmed to be fighting on February 8 in Las Vegas.
Lopez will defend his WBO and Ring Magazine super-lightweight titles against Ortiz at the Michelob Ultra Arena on the Thursday before Super Bowl weekend.
THE SHOWMAN RETURNS.@TeofimoLopez re-enters the spotlight as he faces @JamaineOrtizR on Feb. 8 in Las Vegas 🍿#TeofimoOrtiz | On-sale Friday pic.twitter.com/bR9Nk6tTlP
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) January 4, 2024
‘The Takeover’ was previously unified champion at lightweight, securing the belts with an upset win over Vasily Lomachenko. A shock loss to George Kambosos Jr saw the 26-year-old move up in weight to 140, where he beat Pedro Campa and Sandor Martin before getting a shot at Josh Taylor’s title.
It was a career-best performance from Lopez, who snatched the WBO belt and Taylor’s undefeated record over twelve rounds. Post-fight he would briefly enter retirement, but later confirmed that he intended to fight on and was upgraded to ‘super champion’ by the sanctioning body.
Despite previous – and brief – talks with Ryan Garcia for this fight date, Top Rank have now secured a deal with Ortiz, a lightweight contender whose only loss came at the hands of Lomachenko. The 27-year-old underdog will mark his first official super-lightweight fight with a shot at the two belts.
Should Lopez keep hold of them, unifications against the WBC’s Devin Haney, WBA’s Rolando Romero or IBF’s Subriel Matias will all be on the table – although Haney and Romero are currently slated for fights of their own.