LAS VEGAS – With four high-profile 140-pound champions and a fifth who floats among divisions, it’s rare for a month to pass without one of them in the ring.
On the occasion of Saturday night’s WBA super-welterweight title defense by Rolly Romero versus Mexico’s Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and news breaking Friday that champion Teofimo Lopez will defend his WBO belt against Steve Claggett June 29 in Miami, the time is right to re-assess the wealth of talent.
The panel of ProBox TV’s “Deep Waters” delved into the division on Thursday’s episode and former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri made a case that Lopez (20-1, 13 KOs) is the best of the elite group.
“Unlike a lot of champions today, he does not pick and choose his opponents. He’ll fight anybody. … He’s a matchmaker’s dream … ,” Algieri said, identifying Lopez’s reasoning as, ‘I’m going to get to the bigger fight, I’ll be ready.’
“He beat [Vasiliy] Lomachenko … dismantled Josh Taylor. When Teofimo is at his best, he is the best.”
While the date with Canada’s Claggett (38-7-2) leaves something to be desired from the name-value standpoint, Top Rank officials told BoxingScene their matchmakers believe it’s the perfect assignment to keep Lopez positioned for a bigger fight by the end of the year while giving him a strong response to the boring February date with Jamaine Ortiz.
“The big thing was to find a guy to make it a firefight after the last guy ran for 12 rounds,” one official involved in the fight’s making said. “We could only get a fighter for Teofimo who’d bring the fight.”
It was also announced this week that Puerto Rico’s Subriel Matias (20-1, 20 knockouts) will stage his first homecoming title defense June 15 when he meets Australia’s Liam Paro (24-0, 15 KOs) on DAZN.
On “Deep Waters,” famed trainer Teddy Atlas heaped high praise on IBF champion Matias.
“He’s coming in the front door … he comes in behind the jab, and when he gets inside, he is a miniature version of Joe Louis,” Atlas said. “Joe Louis was one of the greatest finishers in boxing of all time, and one of the reasons was he threw such concise, short, beautiful punches. Matias does that. And nothing’s got fat. He is lean and mean.”
That June 15 date coincides with Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ planned Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view main event versus lightweight Frank Martin.
Both Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) and Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs) have fought and lost to unbeaten Davis – Cruz went the distance in a well-contended effort and Romero was competitive until getting floored in the sixth round.
Each has mentioned rematch interest with Baltimore’s Davis (29-0, 27 KOs), and Romero also expressed enthusiasm Thursday in moving up a division to fight recently undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
Lopez also mentioned interest in Crawford, but he has requested through the WBO a junior-middleweight title shot at Tim Tszyu, who meets Sebastian Fundora Saturday in the headliner of the Premier Boxing Champions’ Amazon Prime Video debut card from T-Mobile Arena that includes the Romero-Cruz co-main event.
Next month, WBC 140-pound champion Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) defends his belt against Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) at Barclays Center in New York.
At a session with reporters Thursday, Haney said he intended to end the drama surrounding his opponent.
“Ryan’s been talking so much, it’s motivated me to get him out of boxing because he’s not taking the sport seriously like he should,” Haney said. “I’m super motivated.”
And when someone asked him to rank the best in his division, Haney wanted the rules of the rankings clarified to understand who would follow him.