This has been one interesting week as we were fresh off the Teofimo Lopez victory over Josh Taylor inside the Hulu Theater at the Madison Square Garden, NYC, on ESPN. After Saturday’s fight, Lopez announced he was retiring. Ok, we had heard it all before from fighters, especially ones that had a promotional contract that was supposedly up, according to Lopez. Then Lopez went on ESPN and spoke with Max Kellerman with the national TV announcement that he was indeed retiring. That was the second time that Lopez had stated he was retiring in a matter of days. Now people are starting to take him more seriously with regard to the retirement talk.
That sounds all great, but if he is genuinely retiring, the dominos won’t fall until he vacates the title. When asked shortly after his interview about vacating the title, WBO president Paco Valcarcel, Esq. told ProBoxTV, “Nope.” That clearly indicated to everyone that the retirement talk wasn’t as real as many thought. However, yesterday, Valcarcel, Esq. tweeted that he received a text from Lopez saying he is vacating the title. Now that is what can start the domino effect, and it quickly got a reaction from junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. who tweeted that the fight between him and Jose Ramirez can finally happen.
Thank you everyone for making the greatest moments in my career a GREAT ONE!
— Teofimo Lopez (@TeofimoLopez) June 15, 2023
Thank you @trboxing and @espn for creating “THE TAKEOVER” into a real thing! I am forever grateful for all of the sanctioning bodies in Boxing for showing me I can and am more than Boxing! What a career https://t.co/KYQJ5pWPdf
Not so fast as ProBoxTV news once again reached out to the WBO president, and he said, “We have to wait until a formal letter.” Meaning Team Lopez still has to send the WBO a formal letter to not only vacate the title but also to trigger the ordering of a fight for that title. Another thing that should be noted is the question about the Ring Magazine title status. Lopez has not mentioned anything about that, so we await word from Editor Douglas Fisher to see if Lopez will be vacating that title soon. ProBoxTV will continue to monitor the situation with Lopez as he heads toward retirement.
