Teofimo Lopez Blasts Crawford and Tank Davis Amid Rumors of Top Rank Split

Amid rumors that Teofimo Lopez is looking to move on from Bob Arum and Top Rank Promotions, the former unified lightweight champ and WBO junior welterweight titlist has been making himself extra available to media.

Never one to shy away from an interview, Lopez, however, seems extra focused on creating salable narratives as he takes steps towards free agency. Notably, he’s been extra dogged in publicly pursuing a bout with junior middleweight titlist Terence Crawford and, also, in blasting Gervonta “Tank” Davis whenever he gets the opportunity.

In a recent interview conducted outside of Madison Square Garden in New York, Lopez doubled down on his disdain for Davis, his desire to fight Crawford, and some general ramblings/ruminations about the current state of his career.

“Both of them have holes,” Lopez said, regarding Crawford and Davis as fighters. “The main hole they have is that they don’t believe in themselves.

“How many times did they want Tank to fight Lomachenko at that time? How many times did they say Tank was not ready for Loma? How many times did Mayweather have to speak for Gervonta “Tank” Davis? I’m just speaking facts.

“I see it in Crawford and I see it in Tank Davis. I see it in every fighter that’s out here right now. Everybody got cracks, a lot of holes.”

And then the 27-year-old touched on his current status as a young fighter once pegged for next-level stardom (and who took that first step towards it with his win over Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020), but now firmly stuck in the second tier of boxing stardom.

“I think it’s going exactly the way God wants it to go for me,” Lopez asserted. “I gotta keep working hard. I stay humble. Maybe if I had all that they have, I’d be a stuck-up bitch…Everything I do is obviously in his [God’s] favor, it’s not in mine and he’s got a way that he’s doing it with me…

“I did it the hard way, just me and my father, dynamic duo. We actually came from the ground and up. That’s why they only pay me a million dollars , because they know what my upbringing was. They say ‘a million dollars, that’s enough for you kid, you’ll be alright’ but the rest of them are making 8-figures a fight and I’ve done more in the sense of athletes and achievements. But it’s because some just fall into the six and others fall into the nine.”

One could argue that Lopez “falling into the nine” is mostly his own doing.

After the Lomachenko fight, he did seem on the path to boxing superstardom. But then his business maneuverings to wriggle free from Top Rank for a bigger payout by refusing negotiations in his first defense (versus George Kambosos) backfired. Purse bid winner, Triller, botched the build-up to the fight and eventually defaulted on their bid, wasting everyone’s time and creating the kind of chaos that helped the underdog challenger score the upset over rising star Lopez. The aggressive money ploy also, likely, made Lopez and his team some powerful enemies at Top Rank, as the promotional company has seemed less enthused about pushing the young fighter since then and has matched him somewhat unfavorably in at least a couple of his subsequent fights.

If Top Rank is upset with Lopez, however, the feeling seems to be mutual. On several occasions, the Brooklynite has publicly expressed his disappointment with the way they (and broadcast outlet ESPN) are handling his career.

Last year, for instance, Lopez openly talked about his wishes that someone would buy out the remainder of his Top Rank contract, so he could be free.

“I’m really just aiming for who wants to buy me out,” Lopez told FightHubTV. “It’s not going to be a big deal, it’s not going to be a lot of money for them to buy me out because I’m at the end of my contract. They don’t want me anyways, so it’s a win-win-win for everybody.”