Teofimo Lopez makes his first appearance of 2022, and the former unified lightweight world champion flirts with the super lightweight division this Saturday night at Resorts World, Las Vegas, as he takes on Pedro Campa over a scheduled ten rounds.
ESPN+ televise Lopez vs Campa in the USA, whilst Sky Sports broadcast the card in the UK.
Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs) made a fast rise to stardom, announcing himself as a force in the 135 pound division in December 2019, when he ruthlessly stopped Richard Commey in two rounds to take the IBF lightweight title.
This gave the Brooklynite a bargaining chip for a unification, but he would start as a big underdog when tackling the gifted Vasiliy Lomachenko for the WBA ‘super’ and WBO belts in October 2020.
‘The Takeover’ was superb though on the night inside the MGM Grand bubble, out hustling the Ukrainian, and largely dominating the opening two thirds of the contest, before taking a superb points win.
The 25-year-old’s reign would be short-lived though, as in his first defence of the unified titles, he was dropped in the opening round, and left himself too much to do despite scoring a late knockdown of his own, and went down by split decision to George Kambosos Jr last November.
He now looks to scale the heights a weight north of lightweight against Campa (34-1-1, 23 KOs).
The 30-year-old Mexican doesn’t look like much of a threat, and has only fought outside of his homeland once.
His sole loss came in 2017 by stoppage, and he hasn’t lost in eight since. He was last out in March, stopping Carlos Sanchez Valadez in three.
Prediction: Lopez and his team have clearly picked an opponent to look good against on his super lightweight bow, and I can’t see anything other than a stunning knockout win for the favourite.
Cortes meets Montoya
Andres Cortes (17-0, 10 KOs) looks to extend his unbeaten record on the undercard, and the Las Vegas-based super featherweight should be able to defeat Abraham Montoya (20-3-1, 14 KOs), but he may need all eight rounds, with the Mexican never previously stopped, and coming off a tight majority loss to Gabriel Flores Jr in March.
Zayas returns
In other eight rounders, Puerto Rican super welterweight Xander Zayas (13-0, 9 KOs), who had to withdraw from a scheduled March fight with a viral infection, may also need the duration to take care of Elias Espadas (22-4, 15 KOs).
Remaining Undercard
At featherweight, Jose Enrique Durantes Vivas (21-2, 11 KOs) comes off a close majority defeat to Eduardo Baez, and he can return to winning ways with a points win against Edy Valencia Mercado (19-7-6, 7 KOs).
In six round action, 2020 Olympic silver medallist Duke Ragan (6-0, 1 KO) can take a win on the cards against D’Angelo Fuentes (7-0, 4 KOs) at featherweight, and at middleweight, Troy Isley (6-0, 4 KOs) can win early in his encounter with Victor Toney (6-1, 5 KOs).
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Omar Rosario (7-0, 2 KOs) can also take a stoppage win in his super lightweight affair with Esteban Munoz (6-1, 4 KOs).
The sole four rounder comes at lightweight, where Charlie Sheehy (3-0, 3 KOs) is set to return against an opponent to be confirmed.
