Teofimo Lopez’s comeback continues on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
The former undisputed 135-pound champion is scheduled to face Sandor Martin in his second fight since he lost his titles and a lot of respect against George Kambosos Jr. in November of last year at the same venue.
Lopez (17-1, 13 KOs) stopped Pedro Campa in seven rounds in August, his first fight as a full-fledged 140-pounder.
He has said he’s going to deliver a “takeover” in his new division.
“We all have an opportunity here,” Lopez said. “We all have an objective to do on Saturday night. My whole thing is, ‘How do we continue the takeover?’ We just got to keep winning. Whoever they put in front of us, we beat them.”
The gifted boxer-puncher won his first title when he destroyed Richard Commey in two rounds in December 2019 and outpointed fellow titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko – the then-pound-for-pound king – 10 months later at only 23, which made him one of the biggest young stars in the sport.
Then, even more quickly than he reached the stratosphere, he crashed back to earth. He lost a shocking split decision to Kambosos amid several out-of-the-ring distractions. And he reportedly fought with air in his chest, a condition that at least one doctor said could’ve killed him.
Still, he’s in the process of rebuilding his reputation. He plans to demonstrate what he already knows about himself.
“The only surprise that I think everyone will see is how much better I got since my first career loss,” he said. “What I would like to tell everyone here is that you never really lose. The only time you ever really lose is when you quit. When you say ‘no mas.’ That’s when you lose.”
Martin (40-2, 13 KOs) is a late replacement for Jose Pedraza, who pulled out of the fight three weeks ago because of illness. That doesn’t mean the Spaniard is a pushover, however.
The southpaw from Barcelona turned in his own stunning upset, defeating highly respected Mikey Garcia by a majority decision in October of last year to announce his arrival on the international scene.
He’s coming off a near-shutout decision over Jose Felix this past April.
“I am absolutely ready for this fight,” Martin said. “That’s why I have come. It was a preparation that was done on three weeks’ notice, but I had been training because I’m an athlete 24/7, every day of the year.
“For me, this is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me in my career as an athlete. Basically, in my country, it’s very difficult to be a boxer and come out of Spain. It’s taken a professional career of 42 professional fights across 11 years to have an opportunity like this.
“As soon as I got the opportunity, I couldn’t reject it. Teofimo Lopez. Madison Square Garden. Top Rank. It’s about making history.”
As Lopez said, “We all have an opportunity here.”
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