Teofimo Lopez had big plans for 2020. He was scheduled to face WBA/WBO/WBC Franchise lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko in a unification bout on May 30th and then planned on moving up to 140 pounds to test out the waters in a new division.
Like it has done to most sports, the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has boxing on hold and that this point no one knows when the sport will be back up and running.
Lopez last fought in December when he crushed Richard Commey in 2 rounds to capture the IBF lightweight title.
It was a far better performance than his previous fight when he won a wide decision over Masayoshi Nakatani in July. Lopez won a comfortable margin but wasn’t able to really hurt Nakatani and didn’t look as explosive as he did in his previous fights.
Lopez recently held a Q&A sesssion on Reddit.com and was asked about what he did different in preparing for the Commey fight versus what he he did in his camp for Nakatani.
“Communication with the team, that was really it. We were arguing a lot in the Nakatani fight, bumping heads, it was back and forth, father-son stuff like that. Having a new team inside the camp, my father didn’t like it much, he still doesn’t, but things have changed. I had to leave (Las) Vegas, felt like we had to change the environment. Was able to get my father and everyone out to NJ instead.
My main thing was, what was stressful was the personal part of my life, my wife, my family, the woman side…in that fight, I was worried about my sister fighting my wife and I let that get to me. When I came into camp for Commey, I put all that to the side and told myself if anything happens, don’t let it get to you, focus on it afterward. I didn’t lose the fight, but it wasn’t my best performance. So I think about myself now when I’m in the ring, forget about my wife, my family, everyone, because at the end of the day I need to come home to my loved ones.
I realized that day in the Nakatani fight it’s all about myself at the end, so f–k everybody pretty much, I gotta do it myself,” Lopez wrote.
–boxingscene.com
