By Ryan Burton
MGM GRAND, LAS VEGAS - Rising lightweight contender Teofimo Lopez was on hand for the Tyson Fury-Tom Schwarz final press conference.
The 21-year-old will return to the ring on July 19rh against Masayoshi Nakatani. The winner of the fight will become the IBF lightweight mandatory challenger.
“The dude is 18-0 with 12 knockouts. He’s from Japan. If we really want to weigh it down he’s #1 and I am #2 with the IBF because he’s #3 and I’m #4 and they don't have #1 and #2 rated so this is the IBF title eliminator and after that we get the winner of (Richard)Commey- (Ray) Beltran,” said Lopez.
Commey will fight Beltran on June 28th in a ESPN televised main event.
Lopez has stated on multiple occasions that he wants to fight WBA/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko but has cautioned that if the fight doesn’t happen this year it may not happen because it is getting increasingly difficult for him to make weight.
To help in that department, the 2016 Olympian has enlisted the services of a nutritionist.
“They just came in yesterday. We are actually going to have a full schedule of what to do and what to eat. They study everything and work on perfecting athletes. They study our body and make sure we have the right things. There might be hiccups here and there but they make adjustments and fix it,” Lopez explained.
Lopez is extremely hopeful that he will be able to make weight more comfortably and deliver the fight against Lomachenko that so many fans want to see.
“Right now my main thing is to see how my body reacts to it and be disciplined and see if we can keep maintaining my weight to make the Loma fight happen because they want to make it next year for all the belts. That being said if my body doesn’t react right then I am still moving up to 140 whether it is after Loma or before the Loma fight,” Lopez told BoxingScene.com.
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