Teofimo Lopez has been teetering following his lopsided loss to Shakur Stevenson in January.
After losing his Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles, Lopez officially left the division following a seven-fight run in the weight class. The 29-year-old Brooklyn native is now looking to bring the balance back in his favor at 147 pounds when he boxes WBA welterweight champion Rolando Romero on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Their 12-round fight will headline a DAZN and Prime Video pay-per-view event presented by Premier Boxing Champions ($79.99 in the United States).
“I truly believe that my legacy-defining fights will be in the welterweight division,” Lopez told The Ring. “When it’s all said and done, I can confidently say that I am going to be an undisputed welterweight world champion.”
Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs), a former Ring and unified lightweight champion as well, has scored career-best wins against Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2020 and Josh Taylor in June 2023. He also looked subpar in a split-decision defeat to George Kambosos Jr. in November 2021 and sneaked away with a split-decision victory over Sandor Martin in December 2022, which left Lopez famously pondering in front of TV cameras if he still had it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSrSqea6R8
Lopez hasn’t scored a knockout win since stopping Pedro Campa during his 140-pound debut in August 2022.
Romero (17-2, 13 KOs), a notorious power-punching brawler, could be the come-forward, awkward fighter Lopez needs to score another statement win. But as Ryan Garcia found out firsthand in Romero’s last fight, the 30-year-old Las Vegas native could pull a rabbit out of his hat and land a win.
Romero is a +190 underdog, whereas Lopez is a -245 favorite, according to DraftKings.
If Lopez dethrones Romero, he could suddenly set himself up for big-money title unification fights against the likes of Garcia, the WBC champion, and WBO titleholder Devin Haney. Liam Paro, the IBF belt-holder, could also present Lopez with big business in Australia.
“We’re going to get into these fights,” Lopez said. “I made a direct deal with DAZN, the network itself, with Takeover Promotions. So, we’re not under the other promoters. We are the promoters at the same time. That means we have a lot of great responsibilities now, and I look forward to making boxing great again. I always give better performances than anybody else. We’ll see what happens.”
Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.
