Teofimo Lopez showed off his belt collection today on X and teased IBF light welterweight champion Richardson Hitchens. Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) let Hitchens know he wasn’t going to take the belt.
2025 Forecast
The belt Teofimo displays will likely disappear in his next fight against Hitchens, making this a nightmare matchup for Teofimo. This guy is going to do to Theo what George Kambosos Jr. did.
Teofimo is expected to face two opponents in 2025: Hitchens and Jalen “Butz” Ennis. He could start against Hitchens in the summer and then Boots in October. This could be a bad year for Lopez as he loses two fights and then enters February 2026 facing a career matchup with Devin Haney or Ryan Garrison. Ryan Garcia’s challenge.
Lopez won’t get too much criticism from fans for losing to Boots Ennis because he’ll be moving up to 147 to take on the best fighters in the division. However, Te’o won’t get the same if he gets defeated by Hitchens (19-0, 7 KOs) and then gets embarrassed when facing the loser of the Haney vs. Garcia 2 rematch in February 2026 free pass.
Teofimo made himself look bad by turning down what his promoter, Bob Arum, said was a career-high salary to guard Subril Mathias. His wallet will be big and he can make more from PPVs. For Teofimo, turning it down looked like a duck move and showed he was scared.
belt bragging
“Yo, Richardson, you can train now, kid. You’re not going to get it,” Teofimo Lopez said on The X, showing off his belt collection and mocking IBF minor Middleweight champion Richardson Hitchens.
“Yo, Boots, let’s do three fights,” Teofimo said of wanting to capture Jalen “Boots” Ennis’ IBF welterweight title and become a three-division world champion said.
PSA: @HeIsRichardson X @jalenennis #boxing
135 🏆 140 🏆 147 🥊 @RingMagazine_ pic.twitter.com/QwuMyEmKNA
— Teofimo Lopez (@TeofimoLopez) January 21, 2025