Teófimo López

His paternal grandfather, a Spaniard from Ávila who was born in 1916, emigrated shortly after the Second World War, going to Brazil first before settling in Honduras.

His father, Teofimo Lopez Sr. left Honduras with his mother at age 5, settling in Brooklyn.

The family eventually relocated to Florida, where Lopez Sr. first started training his son at the age of 6.

Lopez won the U.S. Olympic Trials but Carlos Balderas had already secured the United States' sole lightweight entry into the tournament as AIBA's World Series of Boxing champion, so Lopez was aware entering the trials that at best he could only qualify as an alternate for Balderas (who lost in the Olympic quarterfinals).

Lopez was able to qualify for the Honduran team, where his parents are from, and reached the finals of the Olympic qualifying tournament for the Americas to earn his place in Rio.

Teófimo Andrés López Rivera (born July 30, 1997) is an American professional boxer.

He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Ring magazine light welterweight titles since June 2023; previously he held the unified World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super version), International Boxing Federation (IBF), WBO, and Ring lightweight titles between 2019 and 2021.

Lopez has also held the lineal championship at lightweight and light welterweight.

Lopez was born to Honduran immigrants on July 30, 1997, in Brooklyn, New York.

Lopez also won the 2015 National Golden Gloves.

As an amateur, he represented Honduras at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

As of June 2023, Lopez is ranked as the world's best active light welterweight by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and second by ESPN.

He competed in the men's lightweight event at the 2016 Summer Olympics representing Honduras.

where he was defeated by the eventual silver medalist Sofiane Oumiha.

Lopez signed with Top Rank in October 2016, and made his debut on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas fight in November of the same year.

After compiling a perfect 10–0 record, he announced himself to the world stage in December 2018 by beating veteran Mason Menard with a knockout of the year candidate.

In his next fight, Lopez, already ranked #9 by the WBA, #11 by the WBC and #10 by the WBO, faced another boxing veteran in Diego Magdaleno, which ended in another brutal knockout win for Lopez.

He attracted some controversy after his exuberant celebration with Magdaleno still down on the canvas.

Lopez's winning streak continued, improving to 13–0 with a fifth-round knockout victory against former world title challenger Edis Tatli on April 20, 2019, on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Amir Khan at Madison Square Garden, New York City.

On July 19, 2019, Lopez who was ranked #4 by the IBF at the time, faced undefeated Masayoshi Nakatani, who was ranked #3, in a final eliminator for the IBF world lightweight title.

In the fourth round, Lopez knocked Nakatani down with his right hand, but the referee ruled it a slip.

The fight marked the first time Lopez had gone 12 rounds in his career, and he was awarded a unanimous decision victory with scores of 118–110, 118–110, 119–109, setting up a clash with IBF champion Richard Commey.

On December 14, 2019, Lopez challenged the IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey.

Lopez won the IBF title in spectacular fashion after connecting on Commey with a big right hand, and finishing him with a second-round technical knockout.

After the conclusion of the fight, Lopez was joined in the ring by fellow lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, with whom he took a photo with.

When asked about his plans for his next fight and a possible unification bout with Lomachenko, Lopez replied, "You guys know who I want," referring to Lomachenko without explicitly naming him.

In September 2020, Lopez agreed to fight unified WBA (Super), WBO, and The Ring champion, Vasiliy Lomachenko, on October 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

It was the first major fight since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With no live audience, Lopez defied the odds with a stunning upset victory as he beat the highly-regarded Ukrainian by unanimous decision to unify the lightweight division and maintain his unbeaten record, with the judges' scorecards reading 116–112, 117–111 and 119–109.

The first seven rounds saw Lopez staying behind his jab and going to the body, with his opponent offering very little in response.

In the second half, Lomachenko started coming out more offensively, landing more punches.

However, in the final round, Lopez landed 50 of 98 punches thrown (51%), the most an opponent has landed on Lomachenko in a round.

According to CompuBox stats, Lomachenko landed 141 of 321 thrown (44%), while Lopez landed 183 of 659 thrown (28%).

Lopez declined to give Lomachenko a rematch, explaining that “everybody [in Lomachenko’s camp] was being a dick to me, my father.

He [Lomachenko] didn’t want to put a rematch clause in our contract." In the wake of his victory, Lopez asserted that he is the undisputed lightweight champion, despite not holding the WBC belt. However, the claim was contested by many boxing analysts and fans, as the 'Franchise' version of the WBC title won by Lopez against Lomachenko lacks recognition from a large portion of the boxing community, including Devin Haney, recognized by others as the holder of the legitimate WBC lightweight title.

Lopez's first defense of his unified lightweight championship had been scheduled for June 5, 2021, against undefeated contender George Kambosos Jr, before being delayed multiple times due to complications involving Lopez testing positive for COVID-19, and disputes over the venue of the fight.

The fight had gone to purse bids which was won by Triller with a winning bid of over US$6 million, leading to a fallout between Lopez and Bob Arum, head promoter at Top Rank.

On October 6, it transpired that the IBF had found Triller in default of its contract obligation to stage the fight, and that its rights would be awarded to the second highest bidder, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom, meaning that the fight will be shown live exclusively on the streaming service DAZN.

Despite Kambosos entering the bout as a 13 to 1 pre-fight betting underdog, he knocked down the champion in the first round of the fight.

Despite returning the favor by knocking down Kambosos in the tenth round, Lopez ultimately lost the bout via split decision.