Last Friday night on ESPN+, 21-year-old lightweight prospect Teofimo Lopez failed to steamroll similarly undefeated Japanese lightweight Masayoshi Nakatani and everyone went ape shit.
ESPN commentator Timothy Bradley said, repeatedly, that Lopez had been ?exposed.? Other media grabbed at the fat, slow lob of a softball and crafted their own ?he was exposed? stories. Fans on social media buried Lopez for being a total hype job now revealed as such.
In truth, it was a more competitive fight than many have come to expect from Lopez contests?due in great part to the fact that Nakatani was better than expected and presented some issues (his height and length) that were problematic, but also because of how unchallenged Lopez has been throughout his career. Lopez DID win, though, and did enough to make a case for winning ten of twelve rounds. The official scorecards of 118-110 (twice) and 119-109 were decent, but the bout was definitely one of those ?it was closer than the scorecards showed? affairs.
But Lopez was hardly ?exposed.? If anything, ESPN was exposed.
Okay. So, you?re going to hype a kid to the heavens, facilitate soft touch matchmaking so he can showcase his most marketable assets, practically wheelbarrow him to a world title eliminator?then rip him to shreds when he finally steps up to take on a stylistically tough matchup and doesn?t walk through that opponent? Talk about building someone up just to bring him down.
Lopez needs work, but you sure wouldn?t have known that by listening to the ESPN team as they fawned over him in his last several fights on their network.
Lopez saw the deficiencies himself with a post-fight self-assessment of ?horrible.? But was he upset about not walking through Nakatani so he could do his ESPN-hyped post-KO celebration dance or was it because he put on a flawed performance? If it?s the latter, that?s good; if it?s the former, the ESPN hype machine has fucked with this kid?s head good.
The truth is that Lopez IS really good and, especially, a really good offensive fighter. I drew comparisons with Roberto Duran in the past?but only in temperament and the dismissive attitude he has towards his opponents. It?s flat-out ridiculous to call the kid anything more than a prospect at this point, especially given the low level of opposition he has faced as a pro.
But ESPN had painted him as something else over the last year or so. They?ve pushed him to the moon, mentioning him alongside Vasiliy Lomachenko, as if he were currently a competitor on even-footing with the two-time Olympic gold medalist and pound-for-pound talent, and hyping a Lomachenko-Lopez fight as if it made any sense whatsoever right now.
?There?s a pattern I see with Lopez,? Bradley pointed out after the fight. ?If he can?t get you with the looping right hand or the looping left hook, he wants to step inside and hit you down to the body like this?and then, this is what he depends on?the shoulder roll. He misjudges the distance all the time, he gets hit cleanly with right hands and, obviously, he needs to go back to the drawing board to fix a lot of things before the championship fight.?
Bradley would do well to remind himself that he?s talking about a 21-year-old fighter who should be smack-dab in the middle of fine-tuning his world class skills. Forget the nonsense about an alphabet title shot or all the mythos the star-hungry network built around him?Lopez is not a complete package yet and nowhere as good as he has the potential to get.
Now, though, he?s got a shot at IBF world champ Richard Commey and he?s going to have to cram a lot of learning into a relatively short time.
?They?ve talked themselves into a position to fight for this belt,? ESPN commentator Andre Ward pointed out, ?so this fight has to happen.?
Well, that?s not exactly true. Actually, ESPN and Bob Arum?s Top Rank Promotions had more to do with Lopez?s quick rise than the words of the louder-than-loud Team Lopez. If they?re all smart?Team Lopez, ESPN, and Top Rank?they?ll reel back on taking that title shot and get some more experience under their fighter?s belt before moving forward. Lopez has the potential to be a great attraction for a good, long while if everyone can stop getting ahead of themselves.
Lopez, at this point, COULD beat Commey. What the kid does well, he does extremely well and offensive powerhouses do have a tendency to punch above their skill level when first breaking into the world class arena. But why risk a star-tarnishing moment when you don?t have to? Lopez?s future is bright and you can?t buy the kind of confidence he has or the charisma he exudes.
As a fighter, though, he?s still a work in progress?as all 21-year-old fighters should be.
