Boxing star Teofimo Lopez announces retirement following title win over Josh Taylor: ‘I’m out’
Teofimo Lopez announced his retirement following his decisive unanimous decision victory over Josh Taylor on Saturday night.
Lopez, 25, returned to the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, for a WBO junior welterweight title fight with Taylor. After weeks of trash-talk and bad-blood building, Lopez scored a massive victory over Taylor to become a two-division world champion. During his post-fight interview, Lopez indicated that he was toying with the idea of retirement. He answered any lingering questions less than 24 hours later, revealing that he would be walking away from the sport despite being one of its brightest up-and-coming stars.
“What a relief! Retired at the Top,” Lopez posted on Instagram. “Thank you Boxing for the amazing life you’ve provided for myself and my entire loved ones! THE DOUBLE-GREATEST.”
Replying to his post, Lopez may have given some insight into why he is calling it quits at the peak of his pro boxing career. “Not here to do deals with the devil. I’m out,” Lopez added.
Teofimo Lopez Wants a Guaranteed Contract Worth Nine Figures
In an interview on The Porter Way Podcast, Lopez revealed that he will be more than willing to step back into the squared circle, assuming Top Rank comes correct with an offer worth no less than nine figures.
“I think the only way you get Teo back is a nine-figure contract deal,” Lopez said. “Because I’ve made ESPN over a $100 million. I’m still getting paid a million dollars to fight while all these other fighters have not even done a quarter of what I’ve done and accomplished in the sport, they’re getting eight, 10, 12, 15 million dollars.
“So obviously I’m the black sheep of the industry and they’re really hurting me on that end. I really want to fix the sport of the boxing world and the corruption that’s going on.”
Top Rank currently has an exclusive deal with ESPN that has been mutually beneficial for both parties while Teofimo Lopez continues to cash checks far below his value. With the sport in desperate need of new and exciting talent, it’s hard to imagine Top Rank and ESPN allowing Lopez to go without attempting to retain his services with a fat bag of money.
If this is indeed the end for Teofimo Lopez, he will retire as a two-division world champion with a record of 19-1 with 13 wins by way of knockout. His lone loss came against George Kambosos Jr. in November 2021. He had since bounced back scoring wins over Pedro Campa and Sandor Martin en route to his title tilt with Josh Taylor.
Teofimo Lopez’s biggest win undoubtedly came in October 2020 when he bested Vasiliy Lomachenko via a unanimous decision inside the MGM Grand.
