Promoter Bob Arum says it’s “nuts” the way Teofimo Lopez turned down a “tremendous” purse for a winnable fight against Devin Haney on August 16th in Riyadh.
Teofimo’s Erratic Behavior
Fans have been questioning Lopez’s behavior for several years, feeling he has not seemed right in the head since his grueling battle against Vasily Lomachenko in 2020. Although Lopez won, it was a difficult one that seemed to take a lot out of him. When he returned to the ring 13 months later, he was beaten by George Kambosos Jr. in an upset loss.
What’s interesting is that Teofimo chose not to try to avenge that loss. Four of Lopez’s last six fights have been poor, and his behavior outside of the ring has been erratic.
Arum says he can’t understand why Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) would reject taking the Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) fight, which he would have had a better chance of winning than his original plans to move up to 147 to challenge Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis for his IBF and WBA welterweight titles.
Arum also can’t figure out why Lopez was attacking Turki Alalshikh last week, calling him names on social media. It comes across like Teo is
“When someone is giving you tremendous amounts of money, money you’ve never seen before, why are you angry?” said Bob Arum to BoxingScene about Teofimo Lopez choosing not to take the fight with Devin Haney on August 16th.
“I can’t figure it out. I can’t think of a theory of what he’s trying to do with this. The money, and this was a much more winnable fight than with Ennis.”
No one else can understand why Teofimo would turn down the kind of money he would have made fighting Haney. According to Tim Bradley, Teofimo was offered an $11 million purse to fight Haney. He thinks that his reason for not taking the fight is that he was holding out for the kind of dough that he would have gotten for the Jaron Ennis fight.
Arum Can’t Counsel
“Why are you attacking Turki? It’s just craziness,” Arum said about Teofimo’s Twitter storm last week, going after Turki Alalshikh, calling him a “DICKtator.”
“I can’t counsel him because you can’t counsel someone who’s not listening. This is nuts,” said Arum about Teofimo.