Teófimo López rose from Brooklyn to become a three-division world champion

Teófimo López was born in Brooklyn and taught to box by his father in Florida. He beat Vasiliy Lomachenko for the undisputed lightweight crown at 23, lost those belts within thirteen months, rebuilt himself at 140 pounds, and in August 2026 won a world title in a third weight class. Few current fighters have had a career with as many sharp turns.

A Brooklyn Birth and a Father in the Corner

Teófimo Andrés López Rivera was born on July 30, 1997, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Honduran immigrants. His father, Teófimo López Sr., had moved from Honduras to Brooklyn as a five-year-old. A paternal grandfather came from Ávila in Spain.

The family later moved to Florida, where López Sr. began training his son at six and stayed in the corner as the career grew. After his loss to Shakur Stevenson in early 2026, López said the defeat had brought him closer to his father again, according to the Associated Press.

Golden Gloves and an Olympic Detour Through Honduras

As an amateur, López took bronze at the 2013 U.S. Youth Championships in Reno and won the 2015 U.S. National Golden Gloves at lightweight. The road to the 2016 Olympics was harder. The single American place at lightweight went to Carlos Balderas, so López qualified instead for Honduras, his parents' country.

In Rio de Janeiro he lost to Sofiane Oumiha, who went on to win silver.

Top Rank and a Fast Climb at Lightweight

López signed with Top Rank in October 2016. He made his professional debut on November 5 of that year in Paradise, Nevada, on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao against Jessie Vargas, and he stopped Ishwar Siqueiros in the first round.

The knockouts kept coming, and so did the showmanship. He finished Mason Menard in one round at the Hulu Theater in New York in December 2018. In February 2019 he stopped Diego Magdaleno in the seventh round in Frisco, Texas, and his celebration over his fallen opponent drew criticism. Two months later he knocked out Edis Tatli in five rounds at Madison Square Garden.

The fight that showed he could go the distance came in July 2019 at MGM National Harbor in Maryland. Masayoshi Nakatani took him the full twelve rounds, and López won a unanimous decision in an IBF eliminator.

The Commey Knockout at Madison Square Garden

On December 14, 2019, López challenged Richard Commey for the IBF lightweight title at Madison Square Garden. He needed only two rounds, and at 22 he was a world champion.

Upsetting Lomachenko for the Undisputed Crown

Vasiliy Lomachenko came into their October 17, 2020, fight as a 4-1 favorite, according to the Associated Press. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bout took place without fans at the MGM Grand conference center in Las Vegas and was televised by ESPN.

López built an early lead while Lomachenko, known as a slow starter, gave away rounds. Lomachenko picked up his work from the eighth round, but López finished strong. Before the final round his father told him he was ahead and should not take chances. López attacked anyway, outlanded Lomachenko 50 to 19 in the twelfth and opened a cut over his eye.

The AP reported scores of 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112 for López, the cards also listed by Wikipedia. A WBO write-up from the same weekend lists 118-110 as the middle card instead of 117-111. All sources agree it was a unanimous decision. López, then 16-0, added the WBA, WBO and WBC franchise belts to his IBF title, and the AP described him as the youngest four-belt champion at 23. The Ring, Sports Illustrated and the Boxing Writers Association's Sugar Ray Robinson Award all named him a 2020 fighter of the year, The Ring sharing the honour with Tyson Fury.

The Kambosos Loss and a Hidden Medical Emergency

The first defence took over a year to arrive. A positive COVID-19 test in June 2021 and a promotional and venue dispute, which also led to a falling out with Top Rank's Bob Arum, kept pushing back his fight with George Kambosos Jr. When it finally happened on November 27, 2021, at the Hulu Theater, López was knocked down in the first round. He dropped Kambosos in the tenth, but the Australian got up and lost only one card. The scores were 114-113 for López and 115-112 and 115-111 for Kambosos, ESPN reported. López insisted afterwards that he had won.

A week later ESPN's Mark Kriegel reported that López had fought with a serious medical problem. After the fight a commission doctor sent him to Bellevue Hospital, and he was later diagnosed with pneumomediastinum, meaning air around the chest, heart and neck. Doctors who reviewed his records said a small tear in his esophagus was the likely cause. According to the report, his neck swelling and shortness of breath began the day before the fight, and he did not tell his manager or the commission. He was discharged from New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center the following Thursday.

A New Start at 140 Pounds

López had told ESPN after the Kambosos fight that making 135 pounds was draining him, and he moved up. He stopped Pedro Campa in seven rounds at Resorts World Las Vegas in August 2022. In December he won a split decision over Sandor Martín at Madison Square Garden, 97-92 and 96-93 on two cards against 95-94 for Martín on the third. Afterwards he openly asked himself whether he still had it.

The answer came on June 10, 2023, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. López beat Josh Taylor, the unbeaten Scot, by unanimous decision with scores of 115-113, 117-111 and 115-113, and took the WBO and Ring junior welterweight titles. ESPN noted that López talked about retiring right after the win and complained about his pay. He announced his retirement two days later but soon came back.

He then defended the WBO title three times on points. He beat Jamaine Ortiz in Paradise, Nevada, in February 2024 and Steve Claggett in Miami Beach that June. In May 2025 he outpointed Arnold Barboza Jr. in Times Square, New York, on a Riyadh Season card, by scores of 116-112 twice and 118-110.

Shakur Stevenson Takes the 140-Pound Title

The public build-up to his fight with Shakur Stevenson included months of social media exchanges. On January 31, 2026, at Madison Square Garden, Stevenson gave López the clearest defeat of his career. López came out aggressively, but Stevenson controlled the distance, knocked him off balance in the fourth and kept landing his jab. Sky Sports reported that López's left eye was red by the eighth round and that a cut opened in the tenth. All three judges scored it 119-109 for Stevenson, who took the WBO title and won a world title in a fourth weight class.

Three-Division Champion Against Rolly Romero

López moved up again, to welterweight, and on August 22, 2026, challenged Rolando Romero for the WBA title at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Romero was making the first defence of the belt he had won from Ryan Garcia. The AP reported that López mostly controlled the fight with his jab and footwork, landing a career-high 62 jabs among 124 total punches to Romero's 73, according to CompuBox.

It was not comfortable. Romero cut López above the right eye in the fifth round and hurt him with a left hook and a looping right, and he knocked him off balance again in the eleventh. The judges scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for López, with the third card 114-114, a majority decision. Romero called it a robbery and asked for a rematch. "I'm a true example of what winning is," López told the AP. The win made him a world champion at lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight.

Professional Record and Titles

After the Romero fight theScore and Wikipedia listed López at 23 wins and 2 losses, with no draws. Wikipedia lists 13 wins by knockout, which matches ESPN's count of 13 knockouts after the Taylor fight, since every fight he has had since then went to the scorecards. Both losses were decisions, to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021 and Shakur Stevenson in 2026.

Major titles won: IBF lightweight (2019); WBA (Super), WBO and WBC franchise lightweight, along with The Ring lightweight championship (2020); WBO and The Ring junior welterweight (2023, lost 2026); WBA (Super) welterweight (2026). His regional titles include NABF, NABA, USBA, WBC Continental Americas and WBO International belts. These figures are current as of November 2026.

Sources

• Teófimo López, Wikipedia, accessed 13 November 2026
• Lopez upsets Lomachenko to unify lightweight titles, Associated Press (via KSAT), 18 October 2020
• The new WBO lightweight king Teofimo Lopez topples Vasiliy Lomachenko, World Boxing Organization, 18 October 2020
• George Kambosos defeats Teofimo Lopez by split decision to become new unified lightweight champion, ESPN, 28 November 2021
• Doctor says Teofimo Lopez lucky he's not dead after boxer found to have fought with air in chest, ESPN, 4 December 2021
• Teofimo Lopez takes Josh Taylor's WBO title in decisive win, ESPN, 11 June 2023
• Shakur Stevenson dominates Teofimo Lopez to become four-weight world champion, Sky Sports, 1 February 2026
• Teófimo López outpoints Rolly Romero to win title in third weight class, Associated Press (via KSNV News 3 Las Vegas), 24 August 2026
• Lopez beats Romero to win WBA welterweight title, theScore, August 2026