Teofimo Lopez explains why fighting friend Rolly Romero ‘had to happen’

“We go way back from 2015,” Teofimo said to Mike Coppinger of The Ring. “We built a relationship, a friendship at the same time while climbing the ranks in professional boxing.”

“I think now we’ve come to terms where we’ve got to fight each other to let everybody know, yeah, it’s cool to be friends, but when it comes to competition, when it comes to what we love to do, we’ve got to put everything to the side and make the fight happen.”

Teofimo pointed to his 2019 victory over former lightweight champion Richard Commey as another example of separating business from friendship. Although he admitted it was difficult facing someone he respected, he said those opportunities are part of the sport.

He also argued that modern boxing has moved away from the mindset that once produced many of the sport’s biggest fights.

“This is a recent thing where the guys are saying they don’t want to fight each other because they’re friends,” Teofimo said. “I think we need to bring that back. Look how much boxing has grown since then. Look how much noise it’s brought and look how much entertainment as well. I think we just need to bring that back, and it starts August 22.”

The fight gives Teofimo an immediate opportunity to become a three-division world champion after spending the past several years campaigning at light welterweight. Rolly will be making the first defense of the WBA welterweight title he won by defeating Ryan Garcia, while Teofimo is moving up in weight following his unanimous decision loss to Shakur Stevenson in January.