27 April 2023 , 13:20
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Teofimo Lopez has made a vulgar boast about being able to legally get away with murder in the ring.
Lopez, 25, made the comments ahead of his world title fight against Josh Taylor on June 10 in New York. The boast is similar to what former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder said in 2018 about wanting "a body on his record" and fans have been quick to criticise Lopez for the claim.
Whilst Lopez's father and coach was previewing his son's upcoming fight against Taylor, the 25-year-old bumped in by saying: "One thing is I love about my sport is I can kill a guy and get away with it, so it's cool. Don't edit it. God gave me another chance at life so they could finish off what they thought they started," he told Punsh Drunk Boxing.
Do you think Teofimo Lopez is out of line for his comments? Let us know your thoughts below
Fans have since weighed in on Lopez's crass comment with one user stating: "This fella and his dad are the biggest clowns in boxing and that’s saying something." Another user added: "He shouldn’t be allowed to fight Taylor, he’s clearly not mentally well they way he's speaking This dude is a true maniac" before a third wrote: "Teofimo is so out of line for saying this."
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Lopez's controversial comments didn't stop there as in the same interview he said his fight against Taylor will be his last with ESPN, telling the network to keep their "black fighters". The former undisputed lightweight champion, who lost his belts to George Kambosos by split decision in November 2021, accused ESPN analysts Andre Ward and Timothy Bradley of being "corrupt", insisting that he called the pair out on it before his last fight against Sandor Martin.
Teofimo Lopez boasted about being able to get away with murder in the ring (Getty Images)“Commentators are the ones that convince everybody if someone else is winning," Lopez added. "Watch the George Kambosos Jr fight without the commentators, watch my last fight without the commentators and you will see the results. At the fighter meeting I dissed [ESPN analysts] Andre Ward and Timothy Bradley in front of ESPN’s production and all of them, for all their affiliation and corruption that they do.
“I don’t sugarcoat s***. All these motherf***ers d***ride and suck d***, sorry for my language but that is the problem, I don’t ride off that. Just to put it more on this fight, this is my last fight on ESPN. This is why this fight means everything. If they want the black fighters, they can keep them.”