Teofimo Cites Canelo Team Ouster, Declares Support for Crawford After Ugly ‘Junk Style’ Performance

Teofimo Lopez says he’s pulling for Terence Crawford to defeat undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 13th after being booted from Canelo’s team. WBO lightweight champion Teofimo doesn’t state why he was kicked off Alvarez’s team, but given some of his recent racist comments in an interview, it wouldn’t be surprising if that had something to do with it.

Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) didn’t look impressive in his recent victory over his WBO mandatory, Arnold Barboza Jr., on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City. Through most of the fight, Teofimo was clowning around, using a junk style, showboating, and throwing very few punches. Showboating in the absence of throwing just looked strange. Normally, fighters do that when they’re dominating, landing shots at will.

Who Kicked Him Out?

Teo was just clowning without throwing, and it made him look like a jester. That performance had to have annoyed Canelo’s trainer, Eddy Reynoso, who teaches sound fundamentals. What Teofimo was doing was pure junk and was one of the least entertaining fights on the disappointing May 2nd event. Devin Haney’s effort against Jose Ramirez was the worst, but Teo’s was a close second.

“I’m going to for Crawford. The Canelo Team doesn’t want Teofimo. It’s not our fault. It’s whatever the champ [Canelo Alvarez] wants. I don’t want to be heavy, flat-footed, planted feet anyway! I’m a pretty damn good boxer, too. A lot of people chewed my a** for not knowing how to cut the ring off. Canelo fought Scull and couldn’t cut the ring off,” said Teofimo Lopez on social media, complaining about Team Canelo for supposedly booting him from the team for some reason.

You can totally understand why trainer Eddy Reynoso wouldn’t want Teofimo on his team if it were him who made the call. Lopez doesn’t say who booted him and why. Even if you ignore his racist remark about Terence Crawford, the way he fought against Barboza was the opposite of how Reynoso teaches. That’s not a style that he advocates.