‘I’m a unified world champion boxer – I may kill a man and get away with it’
The boxing legacy of Teofimo Lopez improved with victory over Jamaine Ortiz on Friday.
‘The Takeover’ efficiently defended his WBO and The Ring gentle welterweight titles with a controversial factors win over Ortiz. Many – together with ‘The Technician’ – believed Ortiz had performed sufficient at hand Lopez the second lack of his profession earlier than all three judges dominated in favour of the reigning champion.
It’s hardly the primary time the previous unified light-weight champion has courted controversy throughout his profession. And arguably probably the most alarming have been his feedback about killing opponents, crossing an unstated line in fight sports activities from which most know to steer properly clear.
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“One factor I really like about my sport: I may kill a man and get away with it,” he previously told Eddy Gomez of Punsh Drunk Boxing. Teofimo Lopez Sr – his father and coach – was in the car with his son when he made the comment, interrupting “you gotta edit that one” before the 20-1 star insisted otherwise.
Only Lopez, 26, will know just how serious he is when it comes to comments concerning the mortality of his opponents. The New York native made similar remarks in the build-up to his decision win over Josh Taylor last year and responded to the push-back he received in the media.
Are Teofimo Lopez’s kill comments a step too far for combat sports? Let us know in the feedback part beneath.
(Image: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
(Image: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“I said it like it is: I want to kill Josh Taylor,” stated Lopez in May 2023. “Well, what the f*** does that mean? People are like, ‘Get back to boxing.’ Well, that is boxing. This is what we sign up for.”
Accepting the dangers of boxing that apply to at least one’s self and actively pursuing it on behalf of 1’s opponent are utterly various things, nonetheless. It’s a tragedy when any athlete suffers life-changing accidents – or worse – the form of destiny it is virtually unanimously accepted ought to by no means be pursued.
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Lopez has misplaced his unified standing after dropping his WBA, WBO and IBF light-weight titles to George Kambosos Jr in November 2021. He’s since regained champion standing after transferring as much as win the WBO gentle welterweight crown, however there are some followers who will not be received over by one in every of boxing’s most controversial abilities as we speak.
