‘I ain’t trying to give the man his first loss’: Lopez explains why he doesn’t want to fight Stevenson
Teofimo Lopez breaks down the backstory of why he said he doesn’t want to fight Shakur Stevenson, saying he doesn’t want blood on his hands.
Teofimo Lopez makes an appearance on It Is What It Is and has a discussion with Cam and Mase about his comments dismissing a potential fight against Shakur Stevenson, who he thinks brings him the toughest fight, and why a fight between him and Devin Haney never happened. Check out some excerpts below.
Teofimo Lopez on saying he’s not all that interested in fighting Shakur Stevenson due to the respect he has for his manager J. Prince
“To be real, just I ain’t trying to give the man his first loss,” Lopez said. “I’ll let somebody else take that, handle that. I seen Shakur lose in the amateurs — ‘cause we all from that class — and it ain’t a good look, man.
“There was this one time especially here in Vegas, National Golden Gloves, 2015, same year me and Jaron Ennis ‘Boots’ won, and Shakur, man, he lost it. He lost it, man. He lost to Ruben Villa and then he wanted to go up to one of the — I think he did — went up to one of the rooftop of the hotel and he wanted to jump off. Yeah. I ain’t trying to have actual blood on my hands.
“That Olympic shit, him tearing up and stuff, that ain’t nothing. Like, it’s been bad.”
On who he think presents the toughest fight for him at 140
“It’s just myself. Nobody could beat me, nobody. It’s been shown, it’s been proven. At 140 I’m the only one still remaining, retaining my titles, and at the same time still the king of the division, lineal world champion at 140.
“That’s why I was thinking I need a competitor. So I was thinking of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis or Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford.”
On why he never fought Devin Haney
“To be real, that’s more on his side. I’ve tried three times already with Haney. And the last time they were supposed to have a meeting with my promoter Bob Arum from Top Rank and they never came, never showed up.
“But the moment that — my actual first defeat that they gave me, they jobbed me, but that first defeat that (they) gave me, who was quick to jump right away to Kambosos? That was Devin Haney.”