Updated:
Jun 12, 2023 9:15 pm
Teofimo Lopez wants to earn at least $100 million in his next fight, otherwise, the new WBO Super Lightweight Champion claims he will officially retire from professional boxing.
Lopez is coming off a phenomenal performance on the weekend by claiming a unanimous points victory against Josh Taylor in Madison Square Garden, New York.
The boxer from Brooklyn proved his doubters wrong by dominating Taylor throughout the contest and proved too athletic for his Scottish opponent.
Despite adding the WBO and Ring Magazine straps at 140 lbs to his collection, Teofimo Lopez has since mentioned retirement in a couple of social media posts.
However, in a recent interview on The Porter Way Podcast, Lopez claimed he is willing to return to the ring for an astronomical amount of money.
“Only way you get Teofimo back is a nine-figure contract. I’ve made ESPN over $100m and getting paid $1m. Fighters that have not even done a quarter of what I’ve accomplished get $15m.”
Teofimo Lopez had his first major breakthrough in 2020 when he outboxed Vasyl Lomachenko en route to a 12-round unanimous decision. And after beating Taylor, ‘The Takeover’ arguably has one of the best resumes in the lightweight and super lightweight division.
But according to Lopez, he is not as well-paid as some of his rivals who are signed to Top Rank and fight on ESPN too.
One rival is Devin Haney who also recently captured one of the most impressive victories of his career against Lomachenko and reportedly walked away with $4 million and add-ons.
Not to mention, Shakur Stevenson and Lomachenko who both made over $3 million in their respective bouts against Shuichiro Yoshino and Haney.
All of whom took away considerably more than Teofimo Lopez’s guaranteed payout of $1.5 million for fighting Taylor.
Apart from Lopez’s lightweight rivals, the only boxer signed to ESPN who has generated more than $15 million from one fight is Tyson Fury. ‘The Gypsy King’ earned over $25 million from a trilogy fight with Dereck Chisora back in December.
Teofimo Lopez on beating Josh Taylor
If Teofimo Lopez is serious about stepping away from boxing, the 25-year-old would be ending on a high note. Regardless of two judges submitting two close scorecards of 115-113, many believe Lopez won almost every round and made Josh Taylor look ordinary.
“I think it’s like Roy Jones Jr once said. It’s not that these guys aren’t good. It’s just we make it look easy…Body shots, that’s what I focused on. I had to break him down somehow, someway.
“Towards the midway of the fight, I thought that I had to start slowing him down by going to the body and attack more there and it made it much easier for me.”
It’s no secret that Taylor was the naturally bigger man on the night. But towards the latter stages of the contest, the former Undisputed Super Lightweight Champion began to struggle with the pace and Lopez was close to getting the win via stoppage.
“I went for what I had to but Taylor is a big guy. He knows how to survive. He’s got a lot of experience with that end. I think he was going in that ring at 165 [lbs]. Big boy. So, I tried to crack him and everything but he knew how to survive, he knew how to clinch. “He was holding on for dear life but that comes with the experience that these guys have. They’re vets [veterans].”
Indeed, at the age of 32 years old Taylor has been in the pro ranks since 2015 and has previously beaten world champions such as Regis Prograis and Jose Carlos Ramirez.
Therefore, Lopez’s victory over Taylor is even more impressive and if the American does a U-turn on retirement there are numerous lucrative bouts for him against the likes of Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis, and Ryan Garcia.
