Teofimo Lopez has been accused of avoiding a showdown with more than one unbeaten operator in recent weeks.
The 27-year-old from Brooklyn, New York currently reigns as the WBO super-lightweight champion, with the most recent defence of his crown coming against mandatory challenger Arnold Barboza Jr last month.
Lopez had been pencilled in to face former undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney in August, but it has now been confirmed that the fight had fallen through at the final hurdle, despite reports that it had been signed. Haney’s team released an email appearing to show Lopez’ side pulling out.
It appears that ‘The Takeover’ has recently declined another big fight offer, as WBO lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis revealed on the Cigar Talk podcast.
“He [Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh] just asked me ‘Who would you like to fight?’, I said Teo, Isaac Cruz and I said one more person but I forgot who the other person was honestly. When I said Teo his eyes lit up he’s like ‘You wanna fight Teo?’, I’m like yes I wanna fight Teo, he tried to see if I’m dead serious on it, he said call Teo put him on the phone.
“He called him and I couldn’t believe this s**t myself, he don’t know I’m there so Turki’s like ‘Yo Teo I got somebody here that said they’d whoop your ass’, Teo’s like ‘Oh okay put him on the phone, who is it, let me see him’, he don’t know it’s me though right, he go from smiling to [face dropped]. No lie gang.
“So I’m like ‘Yeah I told you I was gonna meet you right here’, he was just looking like ‘Man what do you mean?’, I say ‘Yeah you got no choice but to fight me now’, he said ‘I’m the champion I always got the choice’, so Turki snatched the phone away from me and Teo said ‘No Turki you promised me [Jaron Boots Ennis], what about the Boots fight?’
“Turki said ‘What about the Boots fight you got Keyshawn wanna fight you right here’, he said ‘No no no you promised me Boots.’
“The same bread he was gonna take for Boots, Turki was like ‘Fight Keyshawn, he’s right here.’ … That’s scared. F**k ducking, literally you are scared to fight me, bro.”
Keyshawn Davis tells a crazy story when he first met @Turki_alalshikh and he put him on FaceTime with Teofimo Lopez. Says Teo was scared to fight him 🤣 New episode of Cigar Talk out right now. Great episode tune in.https://t.co/DSVLRVx9Nipic.twitter.com/MfSI0oUzxX
— Naji (@NajiChill) June 4, 2025
While Lopez’s next move is still unknown, Davis is set to make the first defence of his WBO crown against Edwin De Los Santos in his hometown of Norfolk, Virginia this weekend.
