{"id":762776,"date":"2019-12-11T13:40:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T13:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/"},"modified":"2019-12-11T13:40:29","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T13:40:29","slug":"teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/","title":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Sports News of Wednesday, 11 December 2019<\/p>\n

Source: <\/strong>yahoo.com<\/p>\n

2019-12-11<\/p>\n

\n

\"LopezLopez challenges IBF champion Richard Commey for the lightweight belt<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The cold, dispassionate numbers on a screen tell one story: Teofimo Lopez has been, they suggest, his usual brilliant self in 2019.<\/p>\n

Lopez opened the season as one of the hottest fighters in the sport, the Yahoo Sports Prospect of the Year in 2017 and 2018, the only fighter chosen twice in the 12 years one has been selected. He has won all three fights, which came against boxers with a combined 80-4 record, including two by knockout.<\/p>\n

He was good enough that he earned a championship shot, which will come on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York when he challenges IBF champion Richard Commey for the lightweight belt.<\/p>\n

But if 2017 and 2018 were the years of ear-to-ear grins and dynamic KOs for Lopez, 2019 has been a darker, more difficult year for the affable 22-year-old.<\/p>\n

These should be the times of his life. He\u2019s a newlywed with world-class talent and a charismatic personality which screams star.<\/p>\n

But his parents, particularly his father\/trainer, Teofimo Lopez Sr., have made his life extremely difficult for him. They haven\u2019t hidden their disdain for Teofimo Jr.\u2019s wife. Top Rank executives have pleaded with Junior to get another trainer, not believing that his father could help him fulfill his potential.<\/p>\n

Senior resisted any change, but Junior brought in Joey Gamache for this camp to serve as another set of eyes and ears and to make suggestions.<\/p>\n

The pressure that the father\u2019s trash talk, particularly about Vasiliy Lomachenko, placed on the son\u2019s shoulders has been enormous, ridiculous and wholly unnecessary.<\/p>\n

Junior has tried to be everything to everybody and it\u2019s made the year a mess for him despite his victories.<\/p>\n

When he was asked about Lomachenko, he interrupted a reporter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t want to talk about Lomachenko or answer any questions about him,\u201d Junior said. \u201cI\u2019m fighting Richard Commey. That\u2019s the only thing that matters to me. That\u2019s where my focus is.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much of his story, though, has been on the pursuit of Lomachenko. After a 2018 victory in New York, Lopez Sr. saw Lomachenko and let loose a string of invectives, insisting his son would pummel him along with many other threats.<\/p>\n

Lomachenko\u2019s team was stunned; not intimidated, because he\u2019s arguably the top fighter in the world and an upstart pro wasn\u2019t going to worry him too much. But they clearly didn\u2019t get the attacks since Lopez Jr. was so far away from a fight with them and there was no previous animosity between the camps.<\/p>\n

Multiple trainers interviewed for this story declined to comment on the record, but none had good things to say about Lopez Sr. and the way he\u2019s handled his son.<\/p>\n

Top Rank employees roll their eyes at his antics, helpless to do much but to encourage Teofimo Jr. to look for another trainer.<\/p>\n

It puts a needless burden on Junior\u2019s shoulders, but as he often does, he finds a way to say the right thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father wants what\u2019s best for me and he gets excited,\u201d Teofimo Jr. told Yahoo Sports. \u201cHe wants that [Lomachenko] fight so bad. He believes I could do it and so he wants that to prove to everybody. But he means well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before each of his last two fights, Lopez spoke of the issues that the pressures in his family caused for him. By doing so, it made the story bigger, even though it allowed him to vent and get things he wanted to say off his chest.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s doing his best as he prepares for his first world title fight to put that behind him. He\u2019s clearly trained intensely, as the pictures of his thickly muscled body would attest. Gamache has raved about his talent, his work ethic and his ability to pick things up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s been a learning experience for me,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cThere were some things I said that I shouldn\u2019t have and things I shouldn\u2019t have done that I did. I don\u2019t want to say I regret them; what I think the best way to say it is, I have learned from everything and I\u2019m ready to move on. Things like that will be forgotten, especially after this fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hurting, and that\u2019s all it was, but I didn\u2019t need to show it to the world. Nobody needs to see any of that. They don\u2019t need to see no vulnerability or hear about my problems or none of that. Getting to the top and reaching big goals like I\u2019ve set, it\u2019s going to be difficult and it\u2019s not always simple. There are always going to be obstacles to overcome, but you can get around them without advertising all your problems to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this was a bright and promising young man who was in the middle of the fishbowl, fighting battles that were not of his making. He did the right thing by speaking out, by taking steps to fix his issues.<\/p>\n

By getting it out earlier this year, he helped to get Gamache into his camp, and he took the weight off of his shoulders.<\/p>\n

He raved about Commey\u2019s talent and vowed not to underestimate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big deal in my life, something I\u2019ve wanted for a long time,\u201d he said of fighting for the world title. \u201cIt\u2019s been a growing year. I\u2019ve done a lot, accomplished a lot, and I put myself into position to make my dreams come true. That can\u2019t be a bad year. That\u2019s not a hard year. That\u2019s a dream year for some people.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I know a lot is expected. I showed a lot right away and I created a lot of expectations. That\u2019s good, because when you do that, it means things are going right. But there are ups and downs in every sport but you have to learn to deal with them as best you can. I feel like I have learned a lot this year that will make me a lot better going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sports News of Wednesday, 11 December 2019 Source: yahoo.com 2019-12-11 Lopez challenges IBF champion Richard Commey for the lightweight belt The cold, dispassionate numbers on a screen tell one story: Teofimo Lopez has been, they suggest, his usual brilliant self in 2019. Lopez opened the season as one of the hottest fighters in the sport, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":762777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nTeofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sports News of Wednesday, 11 December 2019 Source: yahoo.com 2019-12-11 Lopez challenges IBF champion Richard Commey for the lightweight belt The cold, dispassionate numbers on a screen tell one story: Teofimo Lopez has been, they suggest, his usual brilliant self in 2019. Lopez opened the season as one of the hottest fighters in the sport, […]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/76350007.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036\"},\"headline\":\"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-11T13:40:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1057,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/76350007.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/\",\"name\":\"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/76350007.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-11T13:40:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/11\\\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/76350007.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/76350007.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":344},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036\",\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ghana News\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Sports News of Wednesday, 11 December 2019 Source: yahoo.com 2019-12-11 Lopez challenges IBF champion Richard Commey for the lightweight belt The cold, dispassionate numbers on a screen tell one story: Teofimo Lopez has been, they suggest, his usual brilliant self in 2019. Lopez opened the season as one of the hottest fighters in the sport, […]","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/76350007.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ghana News","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/"},"author":{"name":"Ghana News","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/#\/schema\/person\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036"},"headline":"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl","datePublished":"2019-12-11T13:40:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/"},"wordCount":1057,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/76350007.jpg","articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/","name":"Teofimo Lopez focused on Richard Commey as family drama continues to swirl - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/76350007.jpg","datePublished":"2019-12-11T13:40:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/#\/schema\/person\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/11\/teofimo-lopez-focused-on-richard-commey-as-family-drama-continues-to-swirl\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/76350007.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/76350007.jpg","width":600,"height":344},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/#\/schema\/person\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036","name":"Ghana News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ghana News"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}