As part of Fight Hub’s interview with Teofimo Lopez, Lopez is asked about the perception that he’s not too interested in fighting Devin Haney and naysayers claiming he’s still not undisputed champion until he faces him. Check out some excerpts of what Teofimo’s response was below…
“Yeah, I do (want a fight with Haney),” said Lopez. “So you’re telling me — this shit makes me laugh man — like bringing up this kid, what does it do for me? Honestly, what does it do for me?
“Alright, we go out there and we beat him, okay — I’ll knock him out, I just can’t stand him so I have to, I can’t go out like that. Loma, he was on survival mode and then I was going after him that last round.
“Anyways, moving forward, I beat (Haney) and then what happens? What’s next? Gervonta’s, what, WBA ‘regular’ champion? He’s the WBA ‘regular’ champion, I’m the ‘super’ champion. And the next thing you know I beat Devin and they gonna be like ‘Well you not undisputed yet, Teofimo, because you still gotta beat Gervonta Davis because he has a WBA belt). Yeah but I got the (super title), you know what I mean?
“I’m not saying no to these fights, at all. I’m just being honest here and I’m saying in order for you to prove to me that you was even a competition or an opponent for me, you gotta show me something. They haven’t shown me anything. They fighting over each other’s leftovers, and I’m over here looking at another meal.
“And the first thing to try to win an argument always is about money. Last time I checked I don’t got 20 fights or more under my belt, I got 16. Last time I checked I got all the belts. Last time I checked, I’m highly respected. And last time I checked I earned all my stripes to be where I need to be to call what I gotta call…
“When we gonna fight, we gonna fight. And I’ma make that fight happen. Him along with the other guys. But they all following me. I lead, I don’t follow. Best believe, we gonna make these fights happen. I don’t say ‘no’ to no fight. I don’t fear no man but God. And I think they all know that.
“I’m the leader of the new gen. It’s ‘The Takeover’ for a reason. And when they come to that point when we do face, man, they gonna know just like Loma knew, just like Commey knew. They’re all gonna know.”
