Teofimo Lopez

Teófimo Andrés López Rivera, better known as Teofimo Lopez, was born on July 30, 1997, in Brooklyn, New York, to Honduran immigrants. His boxing journey began at the tender age of 6, under the guidance of his father, Teofimo Lopez Sr. His early years were marked by a strong amateur career, including representing Honduras at the 2016 Summer Olympics and winning the 2015 National Golden Gloves.

Lopez turned professional in 2016, signing with Top Rank. His early professional career was marked by a series of impressive victories, including a knockout of the year candidate against Mason Menard in 2018. His winning streak continued, and by 2019, he had won the IBF lightweight title in a spectacular fashion against Richard Commey.

In October 2020, Lopez faced Vasiliy Lomachenko, the unified WBA (Super), WBO, and The Ring champion. Despite the odds, Lopez emerged victorious, unifying the lightweight division and maintaining his unbeaten record. However, his reign as the unified lightweight champion ended in November 2021, when he lost to George Kambosos Jr. in a split decision. In 2022 Teofimo rebounded with a victory against Pedro Campa and Sandor Martin and in June 2023, Lopez challenged the undefeated WBO and The Ring light welterweight champion Josh Taylor.

He was effortlessly allowed to hunt the world and renounce Taylor’s head, movement, and cat-like reflexes he hunted him down to become a true champion and his second weight class. Frightening many of the defeat of another era Boxing great Lopez shined at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, looking as confident as ever during the second half of the fight. He was able to catch Taylor time and time again with his power punches and was the quicker fighter by far. Lopez won the fight by unanimous decision, becoming a two-division world champion.

Teofimo Lopez is one of boxing’s most explosive and athletic counterpunchers. Fighting primarily out of the Philly shell defense, Lopez often looks to roll a punch off of his lead shoulder and counter with a loaded right hand. He often follows up with a left hook to finish off his opponent and will chase them down with a leaping left hook if they aren’t finished off and trying to escape. Even in the open stance match against southpaws, Lopez will still fight with his lead hand low. This allows him to conserve his energy for those big explosions but on the flip side leaves him open for jabs from his southpaw opponents. He deals with these jabs by utilizing an elbow guard to block them, or even roll them with his lead shoulder if from a far enough distance. Distance is a fighter’s first line of defense, and Lopez uses his athleticism to step back from punches so he can safely keep his lead hand low. His athleticism also allows him to slip punches with excellent head movement which in turn also allows him to explode with big counter punches.