Fans are not giving Teofimo Lopez much chance of defeating unified welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. Turki Alalshikh mentioned during Thursday’s press conference that he’s in talks with promoter Eddie Hearn about making the Ennis vs. Lopez fight. If it gets made, that fight could happen next.

Even Hearn views the fight as a mismatch, but he favors it. That makes sense. There’s money to be made for Ennis fighting the smaller Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs), who will debut at 147.

Fans dislike the Ennis-Lopez fight for these reasons

• Potential Mismatch: Boots is a lot bigger, stronger, and should be fighting at 154. Lopez will be out-sized and underequipped to compete with Ennis. Teofimo has shown no power since moving up to 140 in 2018.
• Delays Ennis’s undisputed goal: Ennis wants to capture all the titles at welterweight to become undisputed as quickly as possible. Fans want Jaron to hurry up with this superficial goal to move up to 154 and test himself against the killers, Vergil Ortiz, Bakrham Murtazaliev, and Sebastian Fundora.
• Teofimo’s defensive style: Lopez looked overly defensive in his recent fight against Arnold Barboza Jr., throwing few punches, moving a lot, and clowning. It was like watching Shakur Stevenson fight, and the fans were bored. Lopez’s fight was one of the dullest on the card.
• Lopez’s racist remarks: Teofimo’s use of the N-word in a recent video clip on social media angered a lot of fans. Some

Turki’s Fight Vision

“I’m talking to Eddie Hearn to do Boots and Teofimo,” said Turki Alalshikh during Thursday’s kickoff press conference in New York City for the July 12th card.

“I know for a fact they’re trying to make the Teofimo fight, but he’s trying to throw me under the bus while he’s doing that so he can try and make Boots look a little bit better,” said Brian Norman Jr. to Boxing Social. “He’s trying to say it ain’t on Boots. It’s on me [for why the fight isn’t happening].

Hearn recently mentioned making an offer to WBO welterweight champion Norman Jr. (27-0, 21 KOs) for a unification fight against ‘Boots’ Ennis, but was told that they wanted to get his defense out of the way against Jin Sakaki (19-1-1, 17 KOs) first. That fight is happening next month on June 19th at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

Norman thinks the only reason Hearn mentioned to the media that he’d made an offer to them was because he was trying to make them look bad. There could be some of that, or Hearn wanted to show his fighter, Ennis, that he was actively trying to set up unification matches. It makes Hearn look better in Boot’s eyes if he’s trying to help him achieve his goal of becoming an undisputed champion.

“There are still big fights in the division. I don’t need him. He needs me,” said Norman Jr. about Ennis. “I’m out here doing my thing. I’m preparing to fight in Japan [against Jin Sasaki]. I’m a world fighter. I’m trying to fight in the UK as well. I’m trying to make a whole legacy about what I got going on. So, I don’t necessarily need him, but I still want the fight to happen.”

Norman Jr. should forget about Ennis and let the fight marinate for a year or two. If he takes the fight next, it won’t bring him the kind of money that it would in a couple of years. Of course, if Turki Alalshikh offers him a big enough purse, that’s different. Hearn’s offer to Norman Jr. of $1.7 million for a unification fight last September was chump change compared to what he could get by waiting. In the meantime, Norman Jr. can get a huge payday fighting Conor Benn after he faces Chris Eubank Jr. in a rematch.

“I would love to fight Conor Benn. I know he’s tied up in a contract with Eubank Jr. at the moment in the rematch clause thing. I want to fight in the UK. He’s the perfect fighter for that. June 19th in Japan. Let me show you how we get down over here,” said Norman Jr.

That’s a bigger fight for Norman Jr. than a unification match against Boot Ennis. Benn is really popular in the UK, and a fight between him and Norman Jr. would sell.