Teofimo Lopez Vs. Jamaine Ortiz Set For Feb 8th
Teofimo Lopez and Jamaine Ortiz will face each other during Super Bowl Week on February 8th 2024.
The ‘Takeover’ defends his WBO junior welterweight title in his first defense. Lopez picked up the title after giving Josh Taylor the first loss of his career. Following the victory, Lopez was linked with facing Ryan Garcia. Reports of a $1.5 million offer began circulating. Lopez confirmed he turned down the offer on the basis the purse was not good enough. Although that may have been the case, Oscar De La Hoya denied anything of the sort.
Lopez On Garcia
“When you’re the best, when you are the guy, when you bring major sponsors, endorsements, big major business deals, when you offer me a 1.5 [million dollars] stake in the piece—f–k you. So yeah I declined the offer. What’s next for me is world wide takeover, that’s what’s next. I want to go to Italy, I want to take it to other places in different ways. I got a lot of fan base in Africa, too, I want to go out there. My whole thing is taking it global because nobody else is going to help me in the boxing game no more,” Lopez said
“I never made Teofimo an offer. I sat down with his promoter Bob Arum and we discussed a percentage split and that was it. Never made him an offer. But I’ll tell you one thing. I will be watching very closely when Devin Haney and Regis Prograis go at it [on Dec. 2] and the winner will possibly get a call from me where we can start negotiating a fight with Ryan, if Ryan wins [against Oscar Duarte on Saturday],” De La Hoya stated
Lopez-Ortiz
A fight with Subriel Matias was also considered for February. The IBF champion, however, pulled out of talks after he suffered a hand injury. There is still hope that the fight can be made for the summer in June on the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Ortiz arrives into the fight with a victory over Antonio Moran. That followed the first defeat of his career against Vasiliy Lomachenko. But for this fight, he will be moving up to 140. Lopez will be the heavy favorite, having already fought several times in the weight class.
Arum On Lopez
“We have a big platform for Teofimo – the week leading up to the Super Bowl is massive. That will be a way to advance Teofimo into big, massive fights for the rest of 2024. And then there is the step-up, tough fight for our rising star Keyshawn Davis,” Arum stated
In the co-main event, Keyshawn Davis faces Jose Pedraza. The fight was initially planned for December 9th 2023. However, Davis was suspended after testing for marijuana. His victory over Nahir Albright was then overturned to a no-contest. Pedraza is on a poor run of form, having failed to win in his last three bouts.
The timing of the card gives Lopez a huge chance to make a statement and then secure the bigger fights. ‘Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com’
