Teofimo Lopez names three fights he wants next as he looks to \u2018recreate\u2019 Conor McGregor success Sky Sports\/YouTube\/WikimediaWBO super-lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez wants to \u2018recreate\u2019 Conor McGregor\u2019s UFC success in boxing. Two-weight world champion Lopez returns to action on Thursday evening as he takes on Jamaine Ortiz in the first defence of his title he won off Josh Taylor last year. Having been a three-belt champion at lightweight, Lopez is keen to add to his world title collection at super-lightweight and hopes for a huge fight next if he can beat Ortiz in Las Vegas. \u2018The Takeover\u2019 is a huge name inside and outside of the boxing ring and he admits he has taken inspiration from McGregor\u2019s success in UFC. The Irishman was a two-weight world champion in the MMA promotion and his popularity on both sides of the Atlantic transcended the sport. McGregor has also made big money away from the Octagon with his various business ventures and Lopez has ambitions of replicating his success in boxing. \u201cConor McGregor has my utmost respect, first and foremost he\u2019s a smart businessman and look at the amount of revenue he\u2019s gained from it. He is in the UFC. He is MMA, whether they like it or not,\u201d Lopez told Fruity Slots. \u201cI\u2019d like to recreate that in the sport of boxing. I look up to guys like that \u2013 not with greed or envy \u2013 but wanting to learn from guys like that. He\u2019s much older than me and I\u2019m always a student of the game. \u201cMe and him have had back and forth on the X app and Instagram, we follow each other, and it\u2019s great to have a profound athlete like him \u2013 an icon and half of famer \u2013 consider me as someone he\u2019s open to talk to, I\u2019m honoured. I\u2019m a kid in a candy store, it\u2019s the best feeling in the world. \u201cI\u2019ll mostly definitely seek his advice in business when we finally get together one on one. I\u2019d definitely want to speak to him and pick his brain and he can pick mine too because I have some great ideas too.\u201d Lopez names Devin Haney, Terence Crawford and George Kambosos as future opponents Should he beat Ortiz, there are lots of possibilities for huge fights for Lopez in the second half of 2024. Fellow super-lightweight world champions Devin Haney, Subriel Matias and Rolly Romero will be watching on with interest, while Ryan Garcia is also a huge name in the division. Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis are huge names at lightweight that represent a possibility, as does George Kambosos Jr, who remains the only blemish on Lopez\u2019s professional record. Similarly, welterweight king Terence Crawford would be a huge fight for Lopez if he was willing to step up from 140 lbs to 147 lbs. Of all those names, though, three stand out as opponents Lopez would love to fight next. \u201cThere are lots of people mentioning my name, but it\u2019s all strategic moves,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve had this before with George Kambosos, but now I have the experience. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s great to have those L\u2019s on my record, it\u2019s great because it\u2019s not a loss, it\u2019s a learned lesson, because now I know why focus is important from a mentality point of view. \u201cMy focus has only been on Ortiz, just last night I was film studying him. The talk about the other names is just nonsense for me right now. I\u2019m blocking the noise. \u201cDo I want to face Haney and Crawford? Absolutely! But my first task is Ortiz. Crawford says he\u2019s just travelling this year and I wish him the best, but may we meet eventually. \u201cI don\u2019t want to name the names of who I want to fight because honestly, I\u2019m bigger than all of them and they know it. But I\u2019m going to avenge that loss to Kambosos, I\u2019m telling you that. If that presents itself in the ring that man better have bodyguards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teofimo Lopez names three fights he wants next as he looks to \u2018recreate\u2019 Conor McGregor success Sky Sports\/YouTube\/WikimediaWBO super-lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez wants to \u2018recreate\u2019 Conor McGregor\u2019s UFC success in boxing. Two-weight world champion Lopez returns to action on Thursday evening as he takes on Jamaine Ortiz in the first defence of his title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}