Teófimo López

Teófimo Andrés López Rivera (born July 30, 1997) is an American professional boxer. He is the current unified lightweight world champion, having held the IBF title since 2019 and the WBA (Super), WBO and Ring magazine titles since defeating Vasyl Lomachenko in 2020. As an amateur he represented Honduras at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Teófimo López
Statistics
Real name	Teófimo Andrés López Rivera[1]
Nickname(s)	The Takeover
Weight(s)	Lightweight
Height	5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Reach	68 ^1⁄2 in (174 cm)
Nationality	American
Born	July 30, 1997 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	16
Wins	16
Wins by KO	12
Losses	0
Medal record Men's amateur boxing Representing  United States National Golden Gloves 2015 Las Vegas Lightweight US Youth National Championships 2013 Reno Lightweight

As of January 2021, López is ranked as the world's fifth best active boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN,[2] Boxing Writers Association of America,[3] sixth by The Ring,[4] eighth by the TBRB[5] and tenth by BoxRec.[6] He is also ranked as the world's best active lightweight by BoxRec,[7] ESPN[8] and the TBRB.[9]

Early life

Lopez was born on July 30, 1997 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Honduran immigrants. His father and trainer, Teofimo Lopez Sr., started training him at the age of 6.[10]

Amateur career

Lopez won the U.S. Olympic Trials[11] but Carlos Balderas had already secured the United States' sole lightweight entry into the tournament as AIBA's World Series of Boxing champion,[12] so Lopez was aware entering the trials that at best he could only qualify as an alternate for Balderas (who lost in the Olympic quarterfinals). Lopez was able to qualify for the Honduran team, where his parents are from, and reached the finals of the Olympic qualifying tournament for the Americas to earn his place in Rio. Lopez also won the 2015 National Golden Gloves. López competed in the men's lightweight event at the 2016 Summer Olympics representing Honduras, where he was defeated in the tournament by eventual silver medalist Sofiane Oumiha.[1]

Professional career

López signed with Top Rank in October 2016,[13] and made his debut on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas fight in November of the same year.[14] He announced himself to the world stage in December 2018, by beating veteran Mason Menard via a knockout of the year candidate.[15]

In his next fight, Lopez, already ranked #9 by the WBA, #11 by the WBC and #10 by the WBO, faced another boxing veteran in Diego Magdaleno, another fight that ended in a brutal knockout for the Honduran. He attracted some controversy after his exuberant celebration with Magdaleno still down on the canvas.[16][17]

On July 19, 2019, Lopez who was ranked #4 by the IBF at the time, fought undefeated Japanese boxer Masayoshi Nakatani, who was ranked #3 by the IBF in a final eliminator for the IBF World Lightweight title.[18] He won the fight by unanimous decision and went on to challenge IBF titlist Richard Commey. Lopez won the IBF title in spectacular fashion after connecting on Commey with a big right hand, and finishing him with a second round TKO.[19][20]

Unified lightweight champion

In September 2020, Lopez agreed to fight WBO, WBA and WBC (franchise) champion, Vasiliy Lomachenko, on October 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It was the first major fight since the COVID-19 pandemic. With no live audience, Lopez beat the Ukrainian by unanimous decision to unify the lightweight division and maintain his unbeaten record.

Professional boxing record

Professional record summary

16 fights	16 wins	0 losses
By knockout	12	0
By decision	4	0

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
16	Win	16–0	Vasyl Lomachenko	UD	12	Oct 17, 2020	MGM Grand Conference Center, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.	Retained IBF lightweight title; Won WBA (Super), WBO, and The Ring lightweight titles
15	Win	15–0	Richard Commey	TKO	2 (12), 1:13	Dec 14, 2019	Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, U.S.	Won IBF lightweight title
14	Win	14–0	Masayoshi Nakatani	UD	12	Jul 19, 2019	MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S.
13	Win	13–0	Edis Tatli	KO	5 (12), 1:32	Apr 20, 2019	Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, U.S.	Retained WBC-NABF lightweight title
12	Win	12–0	Diego Magdaleno	KO	7 (10), 1:08	Feb 2, 2019	The Ford Center at The Star, Frisco, Texas, U.S.	Retained WBC-NABF, WBC-NABF and IBF-USBA lightweight titles
11	Win	11–0	Mason Menard	KO	1 (10), 0:44	Dec 8, 2018	Hulu Theater, New York City, New York, U.S.	Won vacant WBA-NABA, WBC-NABF and IBF-USBA lightweight titles[21]
10	Win	10–0	William Silva	TKO	6 (10), 0:15	Jul 14, 2018	Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.	Won vacant WBC Continental Americas lightweight title
9	Win	9–0	Vitor Jones Freitas	KO	1 (8), 1:04	May 12, 2018	Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, U.S.
8	Win	8–0	Juan Pablo Sanchez	UD	6	Feb 3, 2018	American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.
7	Win	7–0	Josh Ross	TKO	2 (6), 1:57	Oct 13, 2017	A La Carte Event Pavilion, Tampa, Florida, U.S.
6	Win	6–0	Christian Santibanez	UD	6	Jul 7, 2017	A La Carte Event Pavilion, Tampa, Florida, U.S.
5	Win	5–0	Ronald Rivas	KO	2 (6), 2:21	May 20, 2017	Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, U.S.
4	Win	4–0	Jorge Luis Munguia	TKO	2 (6), 0:48	Apr 21, 2017	Osceola Heritage Center, Kissimmee, Florida, U.S.
3	Win	3–0	Daniel Bastien	KO	2 (6), 0:39	Mar 17, 2017	The Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, U.S.
2	Win	2–0	Francisco Medel	TKO	4 (4), 0:58	Feb 24, 2017	Tony Rosa Community Center, Palm Bay, Florida, U.S.
1	Win	1–0	Ishwar Siqueiros	KO	2 (4), 2:03	Nov 5, 2016	Thomas & Mack Center, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.

References

1. "Teofimo Andres Lopez Rivera". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
2. "Teofimo Lopez Jr. turns rankings upside down". ESPN. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
3. "Canelo Alvarez Threepeats As The BWAA's Pound-For-Pound King". Boxing Writers Association of America. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
4. "The Ring P4P". The Ring. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
5. TBRB P4P. "TBRB P4P rankings". Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
6. "Boxrec P4P ratings". BoxRec.
7. "BoxRec ratings". BoxRec. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
8. "Divisional rankings -- The best top 10 fighters per division". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
9. "TBRB rankings". Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
10. "Teofimo Lopez | Professional Boxer". www.teofimoalopez.com. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
11. "US Olympic Trials - Reno - December 7-13 2015". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
12. "Rio 2016: Carlos Balderas earned 1st spot on boxing team, bypassing Olympic trials". Fox News. December 2, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
13. Rafael, Dan (October 11, 2016). "Top Rank adds 19-year-old Olympian Teofimo Lopez". ESPN. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
14. "Pacquiao Decisions Vargas". The Sweet Science. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
15. "Teofimo Lopez blasts Mason Menard in 44 seconds on Lomachenko-Pedraza undercard". The Ring. December 8, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
16. Christ, Scott (February 3, 2019). "Teofimo Lopez brutally knocks out Diego Magdaleno". Bad Left Hook. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
17. "Lopez vs Magdaleno - News, Tape, Ringwalk, TV, Streaming & Tickets". Box.Live. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
18. "Lopez vs Nakatani - News, Tape, Ringwalk, TV, Streaming & Tickets". Box.Live. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
19. Christ, Scott (December 14, 2019). "Commey vs Lopez results: Teofimo Lopez knocks out Richard Commey to win IBF title, says Vasiliy Lomachenko is next". Bad Left Hook. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
20. "News Archive". Box.Live. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
21. Abrams, Marc (December 10, 2018). "Teofimo Lopez Has Star Making Performance In New York City". boxing247.com. Retrieved November 16, 2020.

External links

• Boxing record for Teofimo Lopez from BoxRec
• Teofimo López at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Teófimo López at Toprank.com
• Teófimo López - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings at Box.Live