Promoter Bob Arum reveals he is working on a deal for Teofimo Lopez to face Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis on March 1, 2025 in a joint PPV on DAZN and ESPN.
Arum’s plan
Lance Pugmire @pugboking reports that Top Rank boss Arum is negotiating a fight for Teofim (21-1, 13 KOs) to move up to welterweight to challenge ‘Boots’ Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) for his IBF 147lb belt . It is questionable whether there will be a fight.
Teofimo recently gushed about being “King of the 140-pound division” and offers Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia a 55-45 split. The silence was deafening, and nothing came back.
If Arum offers a similar deal to Boots Ennis, it will be interesting to see if he accepts. His career isn’t looking too good after recent miserable performances back-to-back at Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
Desperate move for Teofim
From Top Rank’s perspective, it’s understandable why they let Theophimus fight this risky fight; his career took off. They need to do something with Lopez because things are looking desperate. He earned losses to Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin to go along with his loss to George Kambosos. It looks shot.
If they don’t get Teofim in with Boots, he’ll probably lose to one of these no-name contenders they keep pitting him against.
This would be the first major fight for two-division world champion Lopez, 27, since his victory over Vasily Lomachenko on October 17, 2020. It’s been four years since Teofimo defeated Lomachenko by unanimous decision over 12 rounds, and these are the weakest fights he’s had since then :
– Steve Claggett
– Jamaine Ortiz
– Josh Taylor
– Sandor Martin
– Pedro Campa
– George Kambosos Jr
None of those six fights resonated with the boxing public, and Lopez has seen his once incredible popularity decline to the point where he is largely irrelevant. Fans see Teofim as an unusual character, who sounds confused in interviews and inconsistent in his performances. He fights as if he has no senses left.
Is Ennis a bust?
If Ennis looks like he did in his recent fight against Karen Chukhadzhian on November 9th, Teofimo has an excellent chance of beating him because he is getting too many punches. Karen made Boots look like a novice, schooling him for nine rounds before she evaporated.
Hearn will likely pursue the idea of matching Ennis against Lopez, as this could be good for him before his contract expires. He must regret signing Boots because he missed two fights for Hearn against Chuhadjian and David Avanesian. If Ennis loses, at least it will be against a name fighter.
The Boots made matters worse by deciding not to accept an offer to fight Vergil Ortiz Jr. for his interim WBC 154 lb title in a huge match on February 22nd in Riyadh. The move showed Ennis’ lack of ambition and ability to take risks.