“No Apology In Sight: Teofimo Lopez Deflects Criticism For Racist Comments, Labels Fans ‘Haters’ Amid Crawford Fight Frustration

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Teofimo Lopez reacted to the huge backlash today over the racist comments he made toward Terence Crawford, labeling the fans a “bunch of haters.” WBO light welterweight champion Lopez appears to be trying to deflect criticism from fans by playing the victim rather than apologizing and admitting he was wrong to say that. He’s not taking accountability for what he said, and it won’t work by deflecting criticism to weasel out of the situation.

(Credit: Geoffrey Knott/Matchroom)

Lopez has made racist remarks in the past and shown an unwillingness to take accountability for saying them. It’s unclear if he thinks that by making the remarks, he can anger Crawford or whoever his target is enough that they’d agree to fight him.

No Apology Given

Teofimo and his dad, Teofimo Sr., voiced their frustration this week over superstar Terence Crawford’s decision not to give them the fight they’ve been chasing. Crawford is moving up to 168 to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed championship on September 12. It’s unknown whether Lopez is serious about wanting to fight Crawford. Some fans believe he’s just using Terence’s name for clout purposes to get some cheap publicity.

Lopez, 27, is coming off a poor performance against Arnold Barboza Jr. last Friday at Times Square in New York City. He won the fight by a 12-round unanimous decision, but was mostly needlessly clowning and showboating without landing much of anything.

It looked weird. Fighters mostly do that when they’re dominating, connecting with a lot of shots, but Teofimo was landing nothing. It looked like he was dancing in the ring for 12 rounds. What was really bad was how Lopez would retreat three to five steps each time the light-hitting finesse fighter Barboza Jr. would come forward to engage.

Stevenson Style Copy?

It’s the exact same style that Shakur Stevenson uses. Some believe that Teo had been studying Shakur’s style and used it as a blueprint for the fight. It was so boring to watch. In a lot of ways, Teo’s performance was the worst of the Big Three [Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Lopez] on Friday’s Times Square card.