After an early victory over the Mexican middle peasant Pedro Campa (34-2-1, 23 KOs), the former undisputed lightweight champion (up to 61.2 kg) American Teofimo Lopez (17-1, 13 KOs) answered questions from the American media.
AT
conversation the super lightweight prospect (up to 63.5 kg) spoke about the difficulties before the fight, commented on his feelings in the fight, spoke about the desired opponents for future fights and spoke about the reaction of the promoter of the American prospect Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) Oscar De La Hoya .
– Great stop. Tell us how the knockdown went, what happened there?
“I just needed to calm down, pick up the punches. The storm needed to be calmed. The fact is that I myself am a storm. Therefore, it was only necessary to turn on. It’s been a long time since the last fight. To be honest, I needed to remind myself that I would be fine in the ring. In the last fight, I almost died. You don’t know what it feels like. And go back to what almost killed you – it can play a bad joke on you. I stood there in front of it all and said to myself, “I’ll be fine. The guys in my corner, the guys are always with me. I wouldn’t have gotten this far just like that.” That was my train of thought, and the magnitude of it all is great, but I can’t be Teofimo without what I have.
– Did you answer questions for yourself in the duel?
“You guys don’t know what it’s like. You see it all from the side, but when you’re there – you take hits, you have someone who comes at you, you need to use your lungs again, you breathe with your lungs again, and not like in an extreme fight. It’s all pressure, a lot of pressure. It’s like against everything. A lot of people don’t really get into it. I don’t care if they say they were excuses. I don’t know guys with asthma who make excuses, do you believe me? Now I need to push off from this and move forward, focus on what is ahead of me. In December we will fight again. December 10th. Maybe against Josh Taylor, who knows?
- Teofimo Lopez – Pedro Campa. Video of the knockout and the best moments of the fight
“Is this who you want: Prograis, Cepeda, Josh Taylor?
Yes, I want a title fight. Having guys like Barbosa, Ryan Garcia and all the rest – they just stand in my way – to become a double undisputed champion. I know that I can do it next year.
Do you still want to fight Ryan Garcia?
– Absolutely, but what will Ryan bring with him, except for the fans? I understand you are going to say now that there will be a lot of money at stake and the like, but I don’t see the point in that. Money will always come, guys. I don’t worry about it. I know where I’m going. I’m going to the castle [показывает принт на футболке].
— How did you feel today?
“I needed to get the rust off and everything, but I’m going to beat the crap out of all these guys!”
Is there someone special you want?
– As I said, Josh Taylor, who has WBO and IBF, for which I am ranked. This makes me laugh. Ramirez and Catterall wrote a slander to remove me from the ratings. They didn’t even fight each other. Ramirez said he would get married because he was too afraid to fight Cepeda. Hopefully next week I’ll be in the rankings as the mandatory challenger to Josh Taylor.
- Teofimo Lopez vs. Pedro Campa: heavyweight rematch hitting stats
Do you feel your strength more than at lightweight?
I need to work on some small things. You need to work on your legs. It’s been a long time. My body took a lot of damage in the last fight so we only had 2 weeks of sparring. I now listen to my body more. My body is my temple.
Did you see Oscar De La Hoya sitting in the hall?
Everyone laughed. They are all upset. They thought I would perform poorly.