Teofimo Lopez tried to liven up the deadbeat group of fighters on the table during the kickoff press conference this week to promote Turki Alalshikh’s Fatal Fury event on May 2nd at Times Square in New York City.
WBO light welterweight champion Lopez didn’t like how boring and lifeless the press conference was, with Devin Haney, Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, Ryan Garcia and Arnold Barboza Jr. all exchanging niceties with one another. They sounded like they’d been told ahead of time to keep it clean, say nice feel-good pleasantries with one another, and stay in the mode the entire press conference.
Dead Air
Teo has got it right. The purpose of the press conference was to connect with fans to sell their May 2nd event. You can’t do that if all the fighters are kissing each other’s backsides the whole time.
When Teofimo tried to liven things up, he was told to pipe down by Ryan Garcia, who told him, “This is how we want to run it.” In other words, Kingry wanted to play nice-nice too, and obviously had been told to keep things friendly.
Devin Haney: “You on drugs today, bro? You’re on drugs.”
Teofimo Lopez: “You don’t see it? Look at that [pointing to his biceps]. There’s drug A and drug B.”
Haney: “I know you’re tired of this guy.”
Teofimo: “I’m the only world champion sitting here right now.”
Haney: “We’re not on drugs like you.”
Teofimo: “I’m just trying to help you out promote this better.”
Haney: “We don’t need no help. We’re sitting at the same table. We don’t need to help.”
Teofimo: Pretending to snore. “This is the most humblest press conference I’ve been to. This is so humble. ‘This is sparring. I just want to know we’re going to play nice when we get there and get a nice check.’ What the f*** is going on?”
Haney to Teofimo: “You on drugs?”
The behind-the-scenes conversation between Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez during the #FatalFury: City of the Wolves press conference for their May 2nd Ring Magazine card in collaboration with @KOFstudio_en.
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— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) March 6, 2025
