{"id":529026,"date":"2026-04-13T19:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:26:07","slug":"teofimo-lopez-world-title-comeback-fight-now-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529026\/","title":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez world title comeback fight now in jeopardy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following a defeat to Shakur Stevenson back in July, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/teofimo-lopez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teofimo Lopez<\/a> looked set to move up to the welterweight division and land a world title fight upon his debut.<\/p>\n<p>Lopez famously dethroned Vasyl Lomachenko to become the unified lightweight world champion back in 2020, but he lost all three of his titles upon his next outing in a shock defeat to George Kambosos Jnr.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Takeover\u2019 then set about super-lightweight, where he claimed Josh Taylor\u2019s WBO crown in another statement victory and made three title defences, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/47794526\/stevenson-seizes-lopez-title-become-four-division-champion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">before being thoroughly outclassed by Stevenson at the beginning of the year.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/ryan-garcia-unveils-next-opponent\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Once again, defeat for Lopez has encouraged him to move up in weight and he had been linked to a challenge for Ryan Garcia\u2019s WBC welterweight world title, with the champion even saying that he was convinced the fight would take place this July.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iXfmNREKxEk?si=70FwBk6c8DSwqwmn&amp;t=114\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Ring<\/a> on Saturday night, Lopez confirmed that there have been talks for that fight and that he is ready and willing to face Garcia without a fight at 147lbs to his name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has been talks, for sure, but that\u2019s the thing. If Shakur and these other guys don\u2019t want to take the risk, we are willing to do it and step up to the plate. That is what we are all about, it\u2019s why we talk about making boxing great again, for that reason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never know, maybe [it happens] in the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Conor Benn\u2019s victory over Regis Prograis looks to have spoiled those plans, with Benn being the mandatory challenger for Garcia\u2019s belt and publicly demanding the fight during the aftermath of his win.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Benn could take Lopez\u2019s place, especially if the WBC opt to strictly mandate the fight. As a final option, Garcia could push for a rematch against old rival and current WBO champion Devin Haney, with the sanctioning bodies often approving unifications ahead of mandatories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a defeat to Shakur Stevenson back in July, Teofimo Lopez looked set to move up to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-529026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}