SPORTS SHORTS 20: TEOFIMO LOPEZ IS BOXING SCENE FIGHTER OF THE YEAR 2020 BUT DEVIN HANEY DOES NOT RECOGNIZE HIM AS UNDISPUTED CHAMPION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 10 Jan 2021
Teofimo Lopez scored a convincing unanimous decision win over three-division titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko, one of very best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing and earned for him the BoxingScene.com’s “Fighter of the Year 2020" award. “Wow! This is amazing,” Lopez told BoxingScene.com of his latest year-end award. “I really thank BoxingScene for giving me this tremendous honor. I sincerely appreciate it.”
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The runners-up for the top awards in alphabetical order are: WBC/WBA super middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, WBC/WBA/IBF middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, WBA superflyweight king Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, WBO junior bantamweight ruler Kazuto Ioka, and WBO–NABO light heavyweight title holder Joe Smith Jr.
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WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney is setting his target on WBA/WBO/IBF champ Teofimo Lopez, whom he still does not consider as the undisputed lightweight champion. "The main fight I want to be made is with Teofimo Lopez for all the belts, for the real undisputed king. 135 is not easy for me to make at all. I’ve been saying this for a while now. It’s hard to make weight, but for these big fights I’ll sacrifice and stay there. But if I can’t get a big fight with one of the other three [Lopez, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia], I’ll go to 140, ” Haney was quoted by Boxing Scene.
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Haney added that if Lopez really considers him not as a serious threat, why not face him to just take his belt. Lopez in a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, answered that he is not avoiding Haney, but he thinks a win over Haney does not add to his reputation since he already defeated the No. 1 guy in the lightweight division Vasiliy Lomachenko. Haney for the meantime sets his next ring assignment in April against Javier Fortuna of La Romana, Dominican Republic or possibly Jorge Linares of Barinas, Venezuela in case Ryan Garcia won't heed to his mandatory title fight.
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Like most boxers in 2020, Jessie Vargas was only able to see action one time. The former WBA super lightweight titlist and former WBO welterweight champion lost a unanimous decision to Mikey Garcia on February 29, 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sports world to a sudden stop.
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Even if some states allowed a limited number of fans to witness sporting events live in venues, Vargas decided to take the rest of the year off from the ring and spend time with his family. "That is exactly what I did. With the pandemic and lockdown I decided to just sit back and enjoy time with my family,” Vargas told Boxing Scene.
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Prior to the fight against Garcia, Vargas stopped former champion Humberto Soto by 6th round TKO in a bout contested at a 151 pound catchweight in April 26, 2019. After that Vargas (29-3-2, 11 KOs), age 31 of Los Angeles, California, thinks of campaigning as a full fledged super welterweight. "I am really looking forward to performing superbly in the 154 pound division. There are a few names out there that I am interested in and the goal is to become a three-division champion,” Vargas stated.
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Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya told Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV that Mike Tyson has inspired him to inspire the next generation of fighters by making a come back and demanding an elite opponent. “I’m thinking about it, yeah, absolutely. I do wanna talk to Mike Tyson about how he felt, just his philosophy on why he did it, how he did it — because he looked phenomenal. He looked great. For a guy who’s 54, 56 years old, he looked in amazing shape. Yes, his timing might’ve been off just a bit but he looked good. And so I was very happy for him and I would love to pick his brain on just the process, and how it took him to get to that mind frame, to the level.
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Asked if he was serious when he mentioned that he would be willing to fight Gennadiy Golovkin. "They asked me ‘who would you want to fight?’, they threw out the name Gennadiy Golovkin," answered De La Hoya. "I go ‘sure, why not.’ I mean, why not? If he’s one of the best, I mean, I’ve always prided myself in fighting the best and that’s not gonna change. I can’t go back on that. And so he can be a possible prospect out there for me. Absolutely, why not.”
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Stephen Curry tallied 38 points as the Golden State Warriors rallied from a 22-point deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 115-105 on Friday in San Francisco. Curry sank nine three pointers as the Warriors got even from their loss to the Clippers on Wednesday when Curry was limited to a season low 13 points. The Warriors converted 20 three-point shots in Friday’s game. Paul George topscored with 25 points and Kawhi Leonard contributed 24 for the Clippers, who committed 18 turnovers.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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