If you were paying attention to tweets from Teofimo Lopez and Terence Crawford in the past week, you would know ‘The Takeover’ is having some issues with his promoter—Top Rank. While we are not sure whether Crawford and Lopez will end up fighting, we have got the tea on Lopez and Top Rank’s cracking relationship. 

From the beginning of Lopez’s professional career, ‘The Takeover’ has been with Bob Arum‘s Top Rank. The promotional company signed ‘Teo’ back in 2016, and a legend was born in the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas. However, this eight-year-long relationship seems to be in jeopardy. 

According to a report from acclaimed journalist Mike Coppinger of ESPN, Teofimo Lopez sent a legal letter to Top Rank on Thursday, asserting their promotional agreement was invalid, which allows him to become a free agent. You see, the dispute between the two parties lies in the contract extension Lopez signed before his December 2022 win over Sandor Martin. 

Here’s where things get strange. The language used in the contract suggested that the extension would kick in after Teofimo Lopez defeated Jose Pedraza. However, Pedraza suffered an injury before the fight, and Martin had replaced him, which led to Lopez defeating Martin instead of Pedraza.

It’s worth noting that there have not been any comments from ‘The Takeover’ on the matter as of the time of writing. Top Rank, on the other hand, had a lot to say about this situation. 

Top Rank on disputed extension with Teofimo Lopez

Reacting to the change in Lopez’s December 2022 opponent, Top Rank argued the amendment was valid and claimed Lopez had agreed the amendment was valid in the following written document. However, they had more to add to this—claiming there were several fights left in the deal with Lopez because of extensions that were triggered separately. 

For instance, their contract read that in case Lopez wins another title, it would trigger an extension—this seems to have happened when ‘The Takeover’ defeated Josh Taylor and became the WBO super lightweight champion last year. Not to forget, Lopez announced his retirement after that and didn’t take any fights in the rest of the year, which Top Rank claims is more time that could be added. 

To top it off, the WBO champion was supposed to fight a third time in 2024—for which he was offered a September 27th date in New York. However, Lopez chose not to take that fight, which also can be added to the contract. Regardless, Lopez and Top Rank are currently in the process of coming up with a resolution to satisfy both sides. However, no point of agreement has been met yet, and Lopez has no fights scheduled. 

That said, one can’t help but speculate why Teofimo Lopez is trying to cut ties with Top Rank. Is he not getting paid enough? Are there any disagreements? Only time will tell what the truth is. Until then, do you have any thoughts on the situation?