A Tale Of Two Teofimos: Mikey Garcia’s Assessment Of Lopez’s Form, Predicts Barboza Jr. Showdown; And Garcia’s Take On Ryan Garcia’s Inactivity Vs. Rolly Romero’s Power

Mikey Garcia isn’t sure which version of Teofimo Lopez we’ll see in his fight against Arnold Barboza Jr. on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City. Garcia says Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) underperforms when he’s “unmotivated” or “untrained” for his fights. He says we’ll see in the first two rounds if Teofimo is in vintage form.

Mikey states that we’ve seen that from the Brooklyn, New York native on “three different occasions.” He doesn’t mention which fights were Lopez failed to perform, but he’s likely talking about these three:

– George Kambosos Jr.
– Jamaine Ortiz
– Sandor Martin

Lopez’s Mental State

Teofimo arguably lost all three of those fights, but the judges saved him in his matches against Jamaine and Sandor. You can add Teofimo’s fights against Pedro Campa and Masayoshi Nakatani to the above list where he looked unmotivated and mentally disengaged.

With Teofimo being up and down mentally, he could fall apart against a well-schooled fighter like Barboza Jr. (32-0, 11 Os) and look clueless inside the ring against this guy. Barboza Jr. is levels above some of the fighters that Lopez has struggled against in the past.

“I think Ryan wins. I think he catches him and stops him,  but for as long as the fight lasts, Rolly is in the fight,” said Mikey Garcia to Little Giant Boxing, predicting the Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero fight next month on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City.

“He’s always going to be aggressive, coming forward, throwing punches and s***,” said Mikey about Rolly.

Ryan Garcia’s inactivity could play a factor in this fight because he’ll be coming off a 13-month layoff, and there are many question marks about whether he can stand up to a fighter with Rolly’s punching power. Kingry did well in his last fight against Devin Haney, but he was facing a weak fighter who did a lot of holding in their clash last April. Rolly won’t be holding, and he’s not weak.

The ‘Two Teofimos’ Factor

“It depends on what Teo shows up,” said Mikey when asked about his prediction for the Teofimo Lopez vs. Arnold Barboza Jr. fight on the May 2nd card. “We’ve seen it. It’s not just one time that it happened. We’ve seen it in two or three different occasions where the unmotivated, untrained Teo shows up, and he has an off night.

“But if the right Teo shows up, the fast, strong, motivated, happy, good energy, then I got Teo winning. We’ll see in the first couple of rounds, right away. You’ll get to see it in the first round or two which Teo is in the ring,” said Mikey.