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Friday, March 29, 2024

WBC Orders Teofimo Lopez Vs. Sandor Martin 140-lb Title Eliminator

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By Sam Volz: Teofimo Lopez vs. Sandor Martin have been ordered by the WBC to fight for the secondary spot for the 140-lb title with that organization.

The first mandatory is Jose Ramirez, who will get dibs on fighting the Regis Prograis vs. Jose Zepeda fight. Those two are battling for the vacant WBA light welterweight title on November 26th.

Given that the former lightweight unified champion Teofimo (17-1, 13 KOs) is planning on challenging WBO 140-lb champion Josh Taylor, he’s unlikely to waste his time fighting the crafty Sandor Martin (40-2, 13 KOs).

With the title eliminator with the WBC being a secondary one, that’s just another reason why Teofimo won’t bother going in that direction.

The third reason is that Martin is all wrong for Teofimo because he’s a slick fighter who would likely do the same thing against him that George Kambosos Jr did in 2021.

Teofimo, 25, is fighting Jose ‘Sniper’ Pedraza on December 10th on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York. Even that fight could prove difficult for Teofimo because Pedraza has a lot of skills and experience, and he’s arguably more mentally strong than him.

The 29-year-old Spaniard Martin defeated Mikey Garcia in 2021, sending the former four-division world champion into retirement. Teofimo is too fragile mentally to take on a fighter like Sandor, and there’s very little chance that Top Rank would ever allow Teo to fight a guy like that.

There are question marks whether Teofimo will succeed at 140 because he owes his past success to being larger than his opponents when competing at 135.

In other words, Teofimo was what some boxing fans call a ‘weight bully,’ Now that he’s at 140 fighting guys that are close to the same size as him, he has to find another way to win.

Top Rank could have useless dead weight on their hands if they let Teofimo fight Sandor and he gets beaten.

That would be two unheralded fighters that have beaten Teofimo, and it would signal to Top Rank that they need to jettison him pronto.

There will be no point in Top Rank keeping Teofimo with their promotional company if he loses to Sandor or Jose Pedraza. After the way that Teofimo performed in his recent debut at 140 against Pedro Campa last August, that’s clear that he’s not going far at light welterweight.

 

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