Lopez Sr: Tank needs to step it up, he’s fighting nobodies
Teofimo Lopez Sr talks about how his son gets terribly scrutinized while fighters like Gervonta Davis often get a pass.
Teofimo Lopez Sr took some time to video chat with media members, and in this conversation captured by Fight Hype, Lopez Sr shares his thoughts on the recent fight between Gervonta Davis and Hector Luis Garcia.
Needless to say Lopez Sr wasn’t impressed by Davis’ performance, and specifically points out Davis’ run as a secondary titleholder who isn’t willing to take on actual champions. Check out some of what Lopez Sr had to say below.
Lopez Sr on if he saw the Gervonta Davis vs Hector Luis Garcia fight and his thoughts
“Bro, that shit was all fuckin’ bullshit,” Lopez Sr said. “My son just beat the guy that retired Mikey Garcia, and everybody was like ‘Teo didn’t look’ or ‘Teo was supposed to knock this dude out’ — you can’t knock out a dude that doesn’t go through the fight trying to fight you. There wasn’t no opportunities there for us to drop this dude.
“I was like ‘every time you hit this dude to the body he just runs. So your momentum just stops after that body shot, so we need to start shifting. We need to start throwing that left hook with the left leg’. It’s something that we do that nobody else does in boxing. And for some reason he wasn’t doing it, but he understands...
“They don’t talk shit about these guys [like Davis] that are fighting fuckin’ nobodies. Like I didn’t even know who this dude was [that Davis was fighting]. Every time Tank fights somebody, I don’t know who they are...and that win with Rolly, that shit was — like Rolly’s not a champion. They made it seem like he beat Floyd Mayweather.”
On if he would give Davis credit for beating Ryan Garcia
“Not really, bro, because why are you chasing Ryan? You chasing money, bro. You chasing Ryan when Ryan’s not even a world champion. Like we want Prograis, we want Prograis. But we not getting the money that we want from Prograis. So why the fuck am I gonna put my son in there with Prograis when we not even gonna make a million dollars?
“The performance [against Hector Luis Garcia] was horrible, bro. Because first of all, he’s fighting a dude that was getting the best of him when that fight broke out [in the stands]. You see Tank double stepping back and looking at the fight and then the fuckin’ referee stops that for like about six minutes. He’s fuckin’ crazy.
“They’re gonna stop that shit for six fuckin’ minutes so Tank can get his fucking breathing back and his momentum back?! A lot of times it ain’t about the money...but I notice that the recognition doesn’t mean shit anymore. People don’t give a fuck about the belts no more. They calling Tank ‘three-time world champion,’ bro. They don’t put that ‘regular’ in there. That’s crazy. The only guy that he’s ever beat for a world title was Pedraza.
“What I’m trying to tell you is Tank needs to step it up...”