In the eyes of some boxing fans, Teofimo Lopez is considered as a pound-for-pound contender with wins over both Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor holding extremely high value. However, the WBO super-lightweight champion could be set to further his claim to the pound-for-pound throne, amidst rumours that he will vacate his world title and move up to the welterweight division.
‘The Takeover’ famously pulled off the upset to dethrone unified lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko back in 2020 in a legendary win that will live long in the memory. However, his reign was cut short by a surprise defeat of his own, losing out to Australia’s George Kambosos Jr.
That first career defeat prompted ‘Teo’ to move up to the super-lightweight division and after just two fights at 140lbs he was ready to challenge the poster boy of the weight-class – Josh Taylor, where Lopez once again registered a win as the underdog.
Since then, unconvincing unanimous-decision wins over Jamaine Ortiz and Steve Claggett have damaged the perception of Lopez as a champion but that hasn’t stopped the New Yorker from calling out his fellow champions for unification showdowns, as well as title-holders in other divisions.
Instead, Lopez is being forced to look towards well-ranked opposition in the WBO rankings, with Manchester’s Jack Catterall being the latest to call for a shot at the 27-year-old’s title.
Yet, in an interview with Froch on Fighting, Catterall revealed that he had been informed that Lopez will vacate the belt, when discussing his own potential world title opportunities following his victory against Regis Prograis at the weekend.
“My understanding is that Liam Paro has got the IBF title, he is fighting December 7th [against Richardson Hitchins], so that’s an opportunity – or a possibility, I should say.
“The WBO, I am told that Teofimo is going up to 147lbs, listen we would love to fight him. I would fight him at 147lbs and I would fight him at 140lbs. His title might go vacant. We’ve got Jose Ramirez and [Arnold] Barboza Jr. fighting, so that could be for the world title.
“I do believe that the WBO have got a convention on Thursday, so I hope that Sam [Jones, Catterall’s manager] or somebody will be going over to push us in that direction.”
As Catterall states, the WBO title could be on the line when Ramirez and Barboza fight on November 16th, or alternatively the victor could be later upgraded to full world champion depending on when Lopez makes his move.
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