Teofimo Lopez acknowledges that journeyman Steve Claggett is a hungry fighter looking to upset him on Saturday night in their twelve-round contest on ESPN.
Lopez (20-1, 13 KOs) says his ring IQ is on another level, and Claggett (38-7-2, 26 KOs) will discover that when he gets in the ring with him at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida.
Teofimo doesn’t expect Claggett to change his come-forward fighting style for their fight like his last opponent, Jamaine Ortiz, did.
Lopez took that fight thinking that Jamaine was going to brawl with him, but instead, he boxed and made Teofimo look bad the entire 12-round fight last February. He exposed Teofimo as lacking hand speed and ability to cut off the ring.
Against the slow-footed Claggett, who lacks speed or mobility, Teofimo won’t have to worry about being outboxed.
Top Rank has picked the perfect opponent for Teo to look impressive, but the fight hasn’t helped Teofimo’s popularity because fans aren’t excited about this match-up.
Teofimo says the only reason he’s fighting Claggett is because none of the top names wanted to fight him, which isn’t true. He wanted this guy. Teo picked Claggett over these three fighters:
– Keyshawn Davis
– Raymond Muratalla
– Arnold Barboza Jr
Lopez’s Strategy
“They’ve been preparing since February. Fifteen years, his whole life, for this opportunity. This is the type of fighters we want to go after sometimes,” said Teofimo Lopez to Title Sports Network about his fight against journeyman Steve Claggett on Saturday night on ESPN.
“Not all the time, but sometimes, and that’s just because of the fact that if we can’t get the unification belts that I’m looking forward to, then we got to make it happen somehow, some way,” said Teofimo.
Trying to set up a unification fight with Teofimo is virtually impossible because he has a high price tag, and he would either price himself out of the fight or reject it. He could have fought former IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias before he lost his title, but he didn’t want it.
A unification against Devin Haney would have been impossible to do because of the purse requirements.
“This guy is hungry. He’s going to come and bring it, but for how long, we’ll see,” said Teofimo.
Of course, the 34-year-old Claggett is hungry because he’s been in the pros a long time and hasn’t gotten anywhere near a world title because of his many losses. Each time Claggett would gain any momentum, he’d lose.
“My IQ is on another level, but we’re never going to take that away from Steve Claggett and what he’s done thus far,” said Teofimo. “Every person that he’s faced, he’s faced former world champions and stopped them. So, I just look forward to a great battle on Saturday.”
Teofimo is a regular boxer who gets by with his power and match-making more so than having a high ring IQ. He tends to fall apart when pressured and is very uncomfortable when his opponents come to win.
When Teofimo campaigned at lightweight, his power was a lot better because he was huge for that division. When he moved up to 140, his power didn’t come with him, and his knockouts have dried up.
Now, Teofimo is forced to win fights by decision, and he’s had a couple of controversial wins over Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin. The reason for that is Teofimo’s boxing skills are good enough, and he can’t depend on knocking out most of his opponents like he had done at 135.
“Jamaine Ortiz fooled everybody and fooled me, and that was fine,” said Teofimo about his last opponent, who he struggled with, winning a controversial decision last February.
“This guy is known for just one thing. He’s a straight forward come forward fighter, and he tries to tire you out. This guy has been preparing since February. So, he’s been training hard.”
Top Rank choosing Claggett has to be seen as a kneejerk reaction by them after seeing how bad Teofimo looked against the boxer/puncher Jamaine. When Top Rank saw that, they likely decided to keep Teo away from anyone with skills and focus on using come-forward fighters.
“During our face-off, he smiled. This isn’t a smiling sport. I got to go do what I got to do. You’re trying to take my bread and butter, and I’m not going to allow that. So, expect a good fight, some good blows, and just expect his face besting up my hands,” said Teofimo about Claggett.