Teofimo Lopez’ behaviour in the build up to his fight with Josh Taylor certainly raised a few eyebrows amongst the boxing public, with some even expressing concern for the 25 year old’s mental wellbeing.
It proved to be of little consequence on the night however, with Lopez pulling out one of the best performances of his career to capture Taylor’s WBO world super lightweight title at the Madison Square Garden theatre.
And, in a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, Lopez seemed to claim it was all an act and that he has pulled the wool over the eyes of the fans and media.
“I have tricked you guys, I have tricked everybody. Because it was part of the plan – got ya!”
Lopez caught some flack for making comments about wanting to end Taylor’s life, but publicly apologised to the Scot following the fight.
After a series of underwhelming performances dating back to his loss to George Kambosos Jr in 2021, as well as issues in his personal life, there were big doubts as to whether or not ‘The Takeover’ would ever be able to produce the sort of performance that saw him beat Vasiliy Lomachenko back in 2020.
However, he managed to set his ongoing out-of-the-ring issues to one side and put it all together again, catapulting himself towards even bigger nights and, potentially, even more titles.
Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney is expected to make the move up to 140lbs, whilst Ryan Garcia announced he would be returning to the weight class following his defeat to Gervonta Davis in April.
Whether or not Lopez accepts the challenges remains to be seen though. A claim of retirement post-fight has since been backed up by him vacating the belt he won only days before.