WBO gentle welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez defends towards #13 Steve Claggett (38-7-2, 26 KOs) on June twenty ninth stay on ESPN on the James L. Knight Middle in Downtown Miami, Florida. The occasion begins at 10:00 p.m / 7:00 p.m. PT on ESPN and ESPN
Teofimo turned down these killers in favor of Claggett: Raymond Muratalla, Elvis Rodriguez, and Kenneth Sims Jr. No matter confidence that Teofimo as soon as had in his profession has evaporated since 2021, and he seems like a washed one-hit marvel.
You may argue that the 34-year-old Claggett is only a slight step above the journeyman degree. With seven defeats and no actual notable wins on his lengthy 15-year resume, Claggett is a poor option to be difficult for a world title.
Confidence Booster for Teofimo
That is one other lackluster battle for the previous unified light-weight champion Teofimo (20-1, 13 KOs), who’s coming off a controversial 12 spherical unanimous choice over Jamaine Ortiz final February in Las Vegas.
Teofimo clearly misplaced that battle, giving a second controversial win in his final three outings, hurting his reputation much more than it already has after being overwhelmed by George Kambosos Jr. in 2021.
Some would possibly argue that Teofimo’s promoters at High Rank match him towards Claggett to maintain him successful and artificially enhance his nose-diving reputation.
By feeding Teofimo a lower-level fighter, his probabilities of successful and searching good are excessive, which is able to improve curiosity with informal boxing followers, who aren’t conscious that Claggett isn’t extremely rated and nowhere close to the perfect at 140.
“This is sort of a Rocky Balboa story for Steve Claggett,” mentioned Teofimo in primarily admitting that he’s dealing with a no-hoper ham & egger in a voluntary protection relatively than dealing with one of many killers that might doubtlessly dethrone him.
“There have been no different fighters who had been fascinated by preventing me, and I felt like he would give not simply me, however the followers as nicely, an ideal battle to observe,” mentioned Teofimo.
Teofimo is being disingenuous when he says “no different fighters” are fascinated by preventing him. There are quite a lot of contenders at 140 that might leap on the likelihood of preventing Teofimo if he and his promoters at High Rank had been prepared to battle them.
Fighters desirous to battle towards Teofimo:
Jamaine Ortiz
Keyshawn Davis
Richardson Hitchins
Gary Antuanne Russell
Arnold Barboza Jr.
Sandor Martin
Regis Prograis
Elvis Rodriguez
George Kambosos Jr.
Jose Ramirez
Teofimo seems to be washed up since his loss to Kambosos three years in the past, and has didn’t stay as much as the expectations that followers and the media had for him after his upset towards injured Vasily Lomachenko in 2020.
Robeisy Ramirez vs. Brandon Leon Benitez
Former WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez (13-2, 8 KOs) can be taking a confidence-booster towards little-known Brandon Leon Benitez (21-2, 9 KOs) within the 10-round chief help bout on the cardboard.
The 2-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, Robeisy, misplaced his WBO 126-lb title in his final battle towards the lanky 6’1″ Rafael Espinoza by a 12 spherical majority choice final December in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
The peak, attain and excessive work price of Espinoza gave Robeisy large issues. Robeisy had Espinoza down within the fifth, however let him off the hook by not going for the end.
Espinoza then got here on to dominate the later rounds, and drop Robeisy within the twelfth spherical with a flurry of pictures. After that beatdown, it’s comprehensible why High Rank is matching Robeisy towards a comfortable contact.
Nonetheless, he’s 30-years-old, has misplaced twice in his brief five-year profession, and might’t afford to be preventing tomato cans for lengthy as a result of he has greater than sufficient expertise as an newbie to bounce again towards the perfect, offered he’s not dealing with somebody as tall because the 6’1″ Espinoza.
To beat a man like that, Robeisy would want to sit down down extra on his pictures as a result of his newbie fashion of throwing single pot pictures didn’t work towards this quantity puncher.
