Teofimo Lopez prepares for welterweight fight against Rolly Romero

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 31: Teofimo Lopez takes on the ring against Shakur Stevenson in the super lightweight bout for the World Boxing Organization title during The Ring 6 fight at Madison Square Garden on January 31, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Ishika Samant/Getty Images) | Getty Images During today’s final press conference ahead of this weekend’s welterweight title fight between Rolly Romero and Teofimo Lopez, both fighters spoke to the media before some personal issues started to creep up between the fighters, with Teofimo in particular getting offended by Rolly’s flippant attitude. “To me, he’s an interim champion,” Teofimo said. “He’s always been a three division interim champion. He’s never been an actual super champion or any world champion, he’s been elevated. And I think some people forget that this guy’s not in my league. He won’t ever be in my league. He never was in my league, and I think that’s the whole purpose of this thing, is for me to show everyone that. Just because he beat Ryan Garcia — I’m not Ryan Garcia.” Rolly would then attempt to troll Teofimo about considering reconstructive surgery on his face. “You can say all that. It’s all fun and games, you got you shirt off and all that stuff, showing your chest and everything — you know, same thing you did with Tank. Same thing. So I seen all these things with you and you can say what you want to say, smile, but it ain’t going to matter come Saturday night.” Rolly would continue to poke fun at Teofimo Jr and Sr, which Jr didn’t take too kindly considering he doesn’t believe Rolly has accomplished nearly as much to be cracking jokes. “What have any of you guys done in this sport to even come about it?” Teofimo exclaimed. “I beat Lomachenko when nobody wanted to fight Lomachenko, #1 pound-for-pound over Canelo, over Crawford, over all their heads. You came afterwards and congratulated me. All you guys are fans. All of you are fans. I’m fighting my fans fight now. Who’s the best fight Shakur has on his resume? Me. “I think everybody needs a reality check on this this. I’m coming back with a vengeance, and I mean that…And I’m coming for you first. You’re going to be my Judas, because I always knew how you always were about me but I was always kind about it because I got a big heart.” But Rolly, being a man of God at this point in life, couldn’t let that one slide. “I never hated on you,” Rolly would say. “I’ve been the only boxer to support you.” The pair would then get into a back and forth argument that lead to Rolly getting up out of his seat and making a lot of hand gestures in Teo’s direction. Once Rolly took a seat after having defended his honor, Teofimo Sr offered some final thoughts. “You’re going to get your chance, Rolly,” Teofimo Sr said. “Come Saturday night, when you corner a dog he’s going to come and fight. So everybody expect a fight…And this is a fight against the whole world, the whole industry, the whole boxing community. My son was not in the pound-for-pound list when he beat Josh ‘F-ckin’ Taylor, undisputed champion…That fight in January was a mental fight to destroy my son and now we coming back to f-ck everybody up because my son loves it when he’s down!”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 9: (L-R) Teofimo Lopez poses with his son, Teofimo Lopez III, and his father, Teofimo Lopez Sr. after the press conference at AVALON Hollywood on July 9, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Melina Pizano/Getty Images) | Getty Images With his upcoming welterweight title opportunity just around the corner, Teofimo Lopez talks to the media about his fight against Rolly Romero while also touching on the recent drama stirred up with his father. Check out some of what Teofimo had to say with the full video interview in the link at the bottom. Teofimo on Rolly saying he plans to walk him down “It’s going to be an exciting fight. He wants it just as bad as I do. He’s defending his world title, he had a huge upset that he made on Ryan Garcia in Times Square. So, yeah, whatever he plans on doing, we’re ready for anything and everything. This is what we do.” On what’s changed from his last fight to this one “I think the preparation. Preparation and the mental stability of the strength that I needed from all that. So, I went back to the drawing board and really just worked on my technique, most importantly.” On whether he expects his power to show at 147 “I believe that it’s that time…I’m at the weight that I should’ve been a year ago and now it’s either I put up or shut up.” On what he’s done differently in camp this time “We did track work a lot this time around. Usually when we do track it helps my reflexes, it helps a lot of different things. So I think that was the main thing. We didn’t do that enough in the Shakur fight. And then the preparation, the mental comeback. It’s really like a great reboot and a restart of everything. So it’s like the spirit of the phoenix, we’re just rising from our ashes. “When I was at 140 I didn’t really have anymore ventures or goals that I really wanted to accomplish. I feel like after the win over Josh Taylor that was like a stamp for me. So now at ‘47, I have this vision that’s stuck on me and I’m so focused on it that I know that I can make that happen. I know it’s in the grasp of my hands and it starts August 22. But for this, this is just an apology to myself…for not trusting myself enough, not going with my gut.” On the public spat he had with his father during a recent interview Teofimo Sr: “At the end of the day, man, that was the best thing that could’ve happened to us. That loss is going to get us ready to take over everything in the game of boxing. My son is going to show up on August 22. Everything with him is mental, he’s in the right place right now and we’re here to take over. He’s going to be undisputed in less than two years, I’m saying it right now.” Tefimo Jr: “I just wanted to show the authenticity that it is…It’s a struggle to get here and I just wanted them to see how it really is and I decided to do that on the Mr. Verzace podcast with my father. [My father] wanted to talk about it later but everybody needs to see that now, see what it really is and what it takes. I’m always going to ride with him, he’s going to ride with me, and we’re going to have those moments.”

With his upcoming welterweight title opportunity just around the corner, Teofimo Lopez talks to the media about his fight against Rolly Romero while also touching on the recent drama stirred up with his father. Check out some of what Teofimo had to say with the full video interview in the link at the bottom. Teofimo […]

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 9: Teofimo Lopez speaks during the press conference to announce his fight versus Rolly Romero on July 9, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Melina Pizano/Getty Images) | Getty Images Teofimo Lopez returns to action this weekend in a welterweight title bid against his old pal, Rolly Romero. Throughout the course of the promotion Teofimo would tell the public that their personal relationship has soured a bit in recent time, and it’s precisely for that reason that he has no problem stepping into the ring with Rolly with the intention to do damage. Talking to Fight Hub TV about the fight, check out some of what Teofimo had to say below. Teofimo on his thought process when the Rolly fight was first presented to him “The fight was presented to me probably like six weeks after my fight with Shakur. And then there was talks with Zuffa. And then I seen Rolly at the fights, Benavidez vs Zurdo, I think it was unification, and I saw him there and I said like a joke to Rolly because I’m thinking after he came to my locker room [after the Shakur fight] and I just seen something in him I didn’t like. I was like ‘oh, you cocky son of a gun.’ So right away I called my legal team and I said ‘make the fight happen, I want to fight him.’ “He knows I joke, all he did was smile back like and didn’t really say anything back to me, just ignored me…He fooled me [about our friendship] because he kind of like came to my locker room right after my fight at The Garden and all that stuff kind of switched right away from that time to the Benavidez vs Zurdo fight.” On if he would’ve been against this fight taking place had Rolly not started acting funny towards him “Yeah, I honestly would’ve [taken] the whole rest of the year off…So that was the real life choice, decision, or defining moment for me.” On if their personal connection will prevent him from going feral should he have Rolly hurt at some point “I’d say if I was in the same situation, he would try to finish it…I’ve been too nice, even in our sparrings. So, it’s time to really turn it up on him.”