Teofimo Lopez said this is just the beginning. Now it’s about showing he can be a champion outside the ring as well as in it.
Lopez, 22, became Brooklyn’s latest world champion in boxing last Saturday night when he captured the IBF lightweight title with a devastating second-round technical knockout of Richard Commey of Ghana at Madison Square Garden.
In just 15 professional fights, Lopez has gone from showman to showstopper, recording his 12th knockout without a loss and validating the promise Top Rank envisioned when the Las Vegas-based promotional company signed him out of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in which he represented Honduras.
Now Lopez plans to use his platform not only to establish himself as one of the best fighters on the planet, but also to have a positive impact on his community.
“I want to take over the sport and be a bigger and better role model to the kids out there,” Lopez told The Post. “I want to be an influencer, a motivational person for the youth. I want to impact the world in a positive way.”
It’s not just talk. To know Lopez’s background is to understand the odds he has beaten to get to this point. Let’s say there have been plenty of family issues that ranged from dysfunction to reconciliation and from heartache to finding his soul mate, all in a young life that spans from Brooklyn to Florida to Honduras.
Boxing has been his saving grace, even when it can be cruel — like when he didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team because he wasn’t old enough to compete in the World Series of Boxing on which the Olympic team was based.
All the obstacles and hardships have served as motivation, conquered by his unwavering confidence and a powerful right hand.
“Each and every one of us out there goes through things and it teaches us a life lesson,” Lopez said. “Whether they’re good or bad, you learn from each and every one of them. That’s one thing about me, I never regret anything. I think everything happens for a reason and I get to enjoy life through it all.”
You couldn’t help but notice Lopez didn’t get the same initial fanfare that Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson and Ireland’s Michael Conlan received. But Lopez drew eyeballs by doing back flips and dancing after each win and talking about “A Takeover” that always seemed to end with him stealing the spotlight. Nearly 1.7 million tuned into ESPN for his fight against Commey and a main event featuring Terence Crawford’s successful defense of his welterweight title.
Lopez is trained by his father, Teofimo Lopez Sr., who can sound overbearing and cocky when it comes to promoting his son, but has served as inspiration in good times and bad.
“Many people could judge on my father but they don’t know the story or the man behind it,” Lopez said. “I look up to my father. He’s my role model and impacted my life in a tough way, but also in a very positive way. I appreciate him and love him for all those things.”
It was the elder Lopez who called out WBA/WBO lightweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko, considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the sport. But there are potential mega-bouts against Stevenson and Conlan in the future.
“I think we have a great generation going on,” the younger Lopez said. “This era has a lot of stardom and we have a lot of potential to make big fights happen. It’s not about who’s first or who’s second or who’s third on the pound-for-pound list. It’s about who’s doing the best. Many people think I’m doing it the right way and the best way.”
Whatever his future holds in the ring, the recently married Lopez wants to make sure his legacy includes what he does outside the ring.
“God gave me a gift inside the ring and it’s my job to give that gift back outside the ring and be a people’s champ,” he said. “There’s going to be bigger and better things coming.”