Eddie Hearn Fires Back at Teofimo Lopez: ‘He’s F—— Completely Deluded’

Promoter Eddie Hearn has a hard time taking Teofimo Lopez seriously as a person.

The head of Matchroom Boxing has long butted heads with the current WBO 140-pound titlist on Lopez’s claims of being a box office draw, and their animus reached a new point last week when Lopez insisted his title fight with Josh Taylor this past summer set a record for ticket sales at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Lopez, the former unified lightweight champion, defeated Taylor by unanimous decision to earn Taylor’s WBO 140-pound title.

“To everybody out there in the boxing world and to all the casual fans listening to this right now, Eddie Hearn is a fluke and a liar and lying to you guys,” Lopez said recently. “The thing that he said about me saying I can’t sell out arenas and stuff—you know, not only did we sell out, me and Josh Taylor, for The Theater at Madison Square Garden. You also know what else we did? We hit the highest gross in boxing history presenting in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.”

Top Rank, the promoter of Lopez, told reporters at the time of the fight that Lopez Vs. Taylor had registered a new record for ticket sales inside the venue.

A gobsmacked Hearn disputed that claim, saying Lopez might need to check his head for a few loose screws. Hearn said Lopez has an axe to grind with him because Hearn had presided over Lopez’s lightweight title defense against George Kambosos in 2021. Kambosos upset Lopez with a split decision win.

“Teofimo Lopez is on another planet,” Hearn told Boxing Social. “Firstly, all this beef with me is because he lost to George Kambosos and he feels that it was my fault that he didn’t get the decision. Because as you remember, [he said] ‘if this was a Top Rank show, I would’ve won that fight.’ What? F—. Like, the guy, he talks so much sh!t. By the way, what a fighter, what an entertainer, amazing for the sport.

“I think he’s f—— completely deluded and I think he’s on another planet. That is what I think. But sometimes you have to be to do what he does. To go in there to beat Lomachenko, to beat Josh Taylor, you probably have to be a little whack. I’m not mad about it. I don’t hate the guy. I just listen to his interviews and go, ‘you talk absolute sh!t.’

“We crept over the line for a sell out at The Theater (for Lopez vs. Kambosos). He didn’t sell out against Josh Taylor. He talks about the biggest gate in the history of The Theater, complete rubbish and by the way, it holds like 3,900 [seats]. So you’re capping about selling 3,800 tickets and you’re this mega star who should be getting $20 million. Amazing fighter but just calm down.”

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.