It was almost instantly apparent that something was different about this 19-year-old kid from New York, the one with the Obama-like smile and a joyful innocence, at those 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Teofimo Lopez wore the cyan and white of Honduras instead of the red, white and blue of the United States because of the strange qualifying rules that gave his spot to another boxer despite a win in the Olympic Trials.
Lopez was waiting for the sign to walk to the ring before his Olympic debut bout against France’s Sofiane Oumiha. He bounced lightly on his toes, as so many boxers do, but his head was on a swivel.
The Olympic Games are big business and billions of dollars change hands, but these kids about to get punched in the face did it for nothing but the love of the game.
Lopez glanced around at the crowd, wearing a smile that said to everyone who saw it, “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
It was the same smile he carried a little more than four years later, when he slipped between the ropes in The Bubble at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as the unified lightweight champion.
He dubbed himself “The Takeover,” and boy, did it look like he’d set himself up to do just that for the next decade. He was 23, rightly should have been undisputed champion, and gave every impression of a guy who was about to run boxing for the next little while.
Lopez looked like a guy who bought a used car and found a winning lottery ticket in the glove box, and was already checking out oceanfront estates in Sagaponack, N.Y., the little village in the Hamptons where the median sale price last year was $7.9 million.
Appearances, though, are often deceiving.
Instead of ascending to boxing royalty after that win over Vasiliy Lomachenko, he was hurtling toward the role of court jester.
He’s fought six times since, and only once has he looked remotely like that budding superstar whose smile lit up the MGM Grand.
Eleven months later, he was butchered by George Kambosos, a scrappy kid who believed in himself when no one else did but not the kind of guy with the stuff to take apart an elite champion.
The Takeover had been overtaken.
He drilled a B-level opponent the next time out, and then struggled mightily in a desultory split-decision win over Sandor Martin on Dec. 10, 2022.
He still talked a great game, but he was fighting nowhere near as well as he was yapping.
As quickly as it seemed to be unraveling, he jammed on the brakes and halted the collision course with irrelevance his career was heading toward.
On June 10, 2023, Lopez delivered a virtuoso performance, perhaps the signature effort of his career, when he won the WBO and Ring titles in a shockingly one-sided takedown of previously unbeaten Josh Taylor.
Lopez will carry those belts with him on an epic May 2 card in Times Square in New York, the show Turki Alalshikh is putting on in an attempt to win back lapsed American boxing fans.
Lopez opens the show against Arnold Barboza, Devin Haney takes on Jose Ramirez, and in the main event, Ryan Garcia faces Rolly Romero.
Amanda Westcott/Matchroom
Teofimo Lopez has had his ups and downs but his only loss was to George Kambosos.
This news conference was huge, and Lopez was bound and determined to make the moment about him.
He pulled a JLo-at-the-Grammys move, grabbing headlines with a shirtless overall look, one strap of his overalls undone.
That outfit screamed, I AM A STAR. PAY ATTENTION TO ME.
But Lopez’s last two outings after the epic performance against Taylor were anything but star-level.
He was booed by his fans in a yawn-inducing win over Jamaine Ortiz, and then was just meh in a waltz past the ordinary Steve Claggett.
At Tuesday’s news conference, he was trying too hard. A few seats to his right, Ryan Garcia sat quietly, dressed immaculately, a vivid reminder of what a true superstar looks like.
Lopez frequently interrupted emcee Doug Fischer, unable to cede the spotlight.
“Let’s get it going,” Lopez said. “I’m here to bring and restore balance to this 3D dimensional world and take over again like I always do. Times Square takeover.”
American boxing is searching for its next superstar. If Lopez can fight like he did against Lomachenko and Taylor, and carry himself like he did before and after those fights, it still could be him.
He’s now like the No. 1 prospect in baseball who’s been up and down between the Majors and Triple-A. The talent is undeniable. But at some point, promise has to turn into production.
Lopez carries himself like a man worn down by the weight of expectations.
He has the talent to cruise past Barboza, and win impressively. As we’ve seen in his struggles with Kambosos, Ortiz, and Clagget, though, he has the ability to look disturbingly ordinary.
Lopez is capable of anything. Brilliant. Boring. Outright disaster. He’s always been must-watch. For the first time in his career, he enters a fight as The Question Mark every bit as much as The Takeover.