Despite that, Hitchins is already talking about Teofimo. And it’s not just Hitchins who could lose on January 31. Lopez’s fight with Shakur is one that could easily go the wrong way for him as well. There is a realistic scenario where both Hitchins and Teofimo lose on the same night.
If that happens, the last thing Teofimo will want is another defensive, hit-and-miss battle against Hitchins in what will look like a loser’s bracket matchup. If Turki Alalshikh wanted to throw money at it anyway, it might still happen. Otherwise, it’s hard to see the appeal.
“I thought I was going to be in the ring with Teofimo after the George Kambosos fight. That’s what was on my mind. When he says, ‘Build me up more,’ I feel like it’ll be a bigger fight if I’m a bigger name,” Hitchins told Brian Custer’s. channelresponding to Lopez saying the fight doesn’t interest networks yet.
Hitchins believed that Lopez would enter the ring so he could call him out after his victory over Kambosos Jr. It was never realistic.
“Right now, I’m still scratching the surface,” Hitchins said. “Everybody calls out my name now. Everybody wants to fight me. Everybody notices me.”
He did not say who “everyone” was.
The fighters who actually call him out are the dangerous ones – the fights that have consequences if they go wrong.
These fighters Hitchins called out:
- Ernesto Mercado
- Gary Antoine Russell
- Subriel Mathias
- Keyshawn Davis
These are four of the most dangerous fighters in the division. They are not soft touch. They are the kind of fights that change things quickly for Hitchins should he lose.
“Whenever I go to the mall, wherever I am – even on vacation – people see who I am. Maybe next year in 2026 it will be a big fight,” Hitchins said of Teofimo. “I’m glad he said he’d like to do it because that’s someone I’d like to get in the ring with and show the world who I say I am.”
Fans did not respond well to that line of thinking. Much of the criticism online has focused on the same issue that keeps coming up – Hitchins still talking about Teofimo Lopez when a real fight is right in front of him against Gary Antuanne Russell, a WBA champion who called him out.
It is easy to talk about Teofimo. Taking the fights that actually get you there is not.
