“You realize what he told me at the tip of the fight?” Teofimo Sr. said to Punsh Dunk Boxing channel. “He said, ‘Dad, I felt him like a bit of kid.’”
Teofimo Sr. then hinted that something outside the ring can have affected his son mentally before the fight.
“I said, ‘Man, I do know, bro. I do know what happened. I don’t know what happened to you, but I don’t know if any individual threatened your ass or what happened in that fight,’” Teofimo Sr. said. “He don’t need to tell me, but that was not my son in that fight.”
Teofimo Sr. insisted the strategy entering the fight was for Lopez to remain disciplined and box Stevenson from the skin relatively than trade punches at close range.
“The entire plan was to outbox this kid, stay on the skin and outbox him,” Teofimo Sr. said. “Then from the start, he just was getting into and getting punished.”
The longtime trainer compared the performance to Teofimo’s sharper outing against Arnold Barboza Jr. and argued that the difference between the 2 fights was obvious.
“That was not my son in that fight,” Teofimo Sr. repeated. “Everybody knows my son is a slick fighter.”
Teofimo himself also appeared frustrated while discussing the criticism surrounding the loss and defended his willingness to take dangerous fights.
“I need to come back back already,” Lopez said. “Canelo only dodged David. But I am going and fight David, they’re like, ‘Well, he got beat up.’ What you’re thinking that would have happened to Canelo?”
Teofimo also claimed he would still favor himself against most of the top names across the divisions.
“I could beat each person who Canelo beat. I could beat each person who Triple G beat. I could beat each person who Caleb Plant beat,” Lopez said.
The comments quickly generated reactions from fans online, particularly Teofimo Sr.’s suggestion that something can have affected his son mentally heading into the Stevenson fight.
