Lopez vs. Campa Preview
A dynamic junior welterweight fight will be going down in Las Vegas on Saturday August 13th between former champion Teofimo Lopez and hopeful contender Pedro Campa.
Lopez is trying to rebound after suffering the first loss of his career in his last fight in November to George Kambosos Jr. in which he also lost the WBA (super) and WBO lightweight titles. The fight was a back and forth affair and was one of the best fights of 2021.
The former champion later learned that he was fighting Kambosos with a condition known as pneumomediastinum which produced a tear in his esophagus and restricted his breathing. Most specialists have now confirmed that he could have died that night so the fact that he went 12 rounds in an all out war was a miracle. If you believe those sort of things of course.
Lopez explained, "Every doctor who sees my report," Lopez said, "they look at me like, 'How the hell did you survive that? Either you're a beast or a God.'"
The 25-year-old made the decision to fight with the condition rather than putting off a fight that had already been delayed twice before, despite his team urging him to cancel. Lopez explained the decision he made and what he learned from it.
“Honestly, the amount of postponements that were going on and everything throughout that year. Training eight to nine months preparing for one fighter, for one fight, it takes a lot, it takes a lot out of you,” Lopez said. “It takes a lot out of a fighter, and just the amount of cuts, weight drops, going back and forth, just beating up your body like that. The pressure really was just, I’m an entertainer. At the end of the day – time. Time is something that we don’t get back. And for all those people out there that come out to support me and watch me, they’re taking the time out of their lives to come out and enjoy a show that they believe they’re gonna have, a good one…
“For me, I had to make a decision, I made an executive decision to push that, and say ‘I can’t let my people down. I can’t let the world down.’ In reality, I realized more so now than ever, that I’ve got to be healthy to be able to do all that.”
Lopez went on to say, “The thing is, there’s a big difference between a mistake and a choice,” Lopez said. “Mistake, you only need to learn it once, maybe twice. However, a choice is when you keep doing it. I learned from my mistakes, and I’m just moving forward. Focusing on, if I’m not healthy all the way, you guys are not going to see Teofimo in action. But we don’t got to worry about that this week, I promise you.”
The Brooklyn native will now attempt to re-invent himself in a new weight class with a positive outlook and mindset. “If we focus too much on the stuff that happened in the past, we’ll never evolve. It’s all about, OK, it happened, that’s what it is, and there’s nothing that we can do, we can’t change it, but what we achieve more now is, how we come back from it. That’s what the Takeback is really all about. … And I needed this, I needed those failures to make me a champion that I am today.”
Lopez is confident he will prove that he has learned from the loss and is a true champion. “If we focus too much on the stuff that happened in the past, we’ll never evolve. It’s all about, OK, it happened, that’s what it is, and there’s nothing that we can do, we can’t change it, but what we achieve more now is, how we come back from it. That’s what the Takeback is really all about. … And I needed this, I needed those failures to make me a champion that I am today.”
Campa (34-1-1, 23 KO) is on a four-fight winning streak since suffering a split draw to Abner Lopez in 2019. This will be his first fight outside of his native Mexico, but he will bring a hungry mentality and aggressive style to this fight. He knows he can make a name for himself in the fight but it will be no easy task and most pundits have already counted him out.
The 30-year-old said, "I really don't care what people think. I know what I'm facing here," Campa said. "[Lopez] is a great fighter and one of the best so I am prepared and just concentrating. I think I'm going to win. I think anything can happen but the main thing is victory. I'm going to take that victory however I can take it."
