Teofimo Lopez announces retirement from boxing at 25
At just 25 years old, Teofimo Lopez is hanging up his gloves. The two-time champion announced his decision to retire on Monday's edition of ESPN's "This Just In."
One day earlier, Lopez posted a retirement message on Instagram.
Lopez, a former lightweight titleholder, just became the lineal champ in the super lightweight division Saturday after defeating 32-year-old former champion Josh Taylor by unanimous decision. Lopez now holds the WBO and The Ring super lightweight titles.
So why would Lopez retire now at just 25, mere days after becoming a champion in his second weight class and literally hours after ESPN published an article about Lopez's future? He had an answer, but not a specific one.
"I have a lot of ideas," Lopez said. "I have a lot of things in mind for the sport of boxing. And I really can't do that if I'm always in the gym training and preparing for another upcoming fight or bout. So I'm really just focusing on that task right now."
There's no doubt Lopez has ideas for the sport of boxing, but this may actually be about money and not all the things he could be doing instead of training. Lopez made a number of retirement-related comments leading up to Saturday's fight, and then immediately after said he needed to "take a break" from the sport. He clarified those comments Sunday on "The Porter Way Podcast," saying it all boiled down to him not getting what he feels he deserves.
“The only way you get Teofimo back is a nine-figure contract deal. Because I’ve made ESPN over a hundred million dollars, and I’m still getting paid a million dollars to fight.
"While all these others fights who have not even done a quarter of what I’ve done and accomplished are in the sport, they’re getting 8, 10, 12, 15 million dollars. So obviously I’m the black sheep of the industry.”
Lopez has spent most of the last week talking about retirement, then announced his retirement on two consecutive days before doing it for a third day on ESPN. Aside from hiring a plane to write "I'M RETIRED" in the sky, he's made it abundantly clear he's retiring. Now the only question is whether he'll get what he wants from it.
