Teofimo Lopez became a two-weight world champion against some of the sport’s toughest fighters by the age of 27.
The Brooklyn native upset the odds against Vasiliy Lomachenko to become unified at lightweight before a shock loss to George Kambosos Jr – in which he remains adamant he was in no fit state to fight – saw him move up to super-lightweight thereafter.
After two wins he challenged previously undefeated and undisputed Josh Taylor, putting in a stellar performance to win the WBO title which he has now defended successfully twice.
Fans would like to see unifications and one can now come against Jose ‘El Rayo’ Valenzuela, who recently defeated Isaac Cruz for the WBA strap.
Since there’s a potential rivalry there, an old clip of Valenzuela claiming to have stopped ‘Teo’ in sparring is doing the rounds once more.
“100% truth, I stopped him in the first round to the body … before my pro debut, right before I turned pro. He came back two weeks later, stopped him again … We said six rounds and he only wanted four. He didn’t come out after the fourth round.”
‘Rayo’s trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr, corroborates the story, which would’ve taken place when his fighter was 18 and Lopez 21.
“Rayo stopped him in the first round. Rayo f***ed him up, got him with a hook, stumbled him and they took him out. Like two weeks later they called me back and said they want to spar Rayo. Rayo stopped him in three rounds.”
At the time, Lopez said that his rival was clout chasing.
Valenzuela defeated ‘Pitbull’ Cruz against the odds, boxing to a perfect game-plan to neutralise the smaller brawler. It was a performance deserving of a unification against Lopez, who may want to finally put the sparring claims to bed if he can’t get the fight against Terence Crawford he so desires.
