Junior welterweight champion Subriel Matías is doing his part to stir up hard feelings toward Teófimo López.
Matías, the IBF 140-pound champion from Puerto Rico, and López, the WBO 140-pound champion from Brooklyn, New York, are reportedly in talks to meet in the ring next summer to unify their welterweight belts. junior.
Matías (20-1, 20 KOs) indicated in a social media post that while López had accepted an offer to fight in February, Matías said that he himself would not be ready for that date due to problems with his hand. Matias is also coming off a sixth-round knockout against previously undefeated Shohjahon Ergashev last month.
In a recent interview, Matías bluntly attacked López’s character.
“He is a coward,” Matías told Matchroom Boxing in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel. “He says that he offered to fight me and he knows that the reason he made that offer is because I recently fought and I will not be ready and prepared for that fight. If he is a man of his word, then he will fight with me.”
Matías also had a word for López’s loquacious father-coach, Teófimo López Sr.
“And a message for your dad, stop talking so much shit!” said Matías. “If he wants to fight me, he can fight me. There are dates there, there are April, March, if he wants to confront me, he stops being a coward. “Stop talking shit and make sure he looks at me.”
Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs), a former unified lightweight champion who won his 140-pound title last summer with a unanimous decision over Josh Taylor, will likely face Jamaine Ortiz on Feb. 8 in a Thursday show evening at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas ahead of Super Bowl weekend.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mob, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.
