Chris Algieri says Teofimo Lopez should move to 140 and not 147

Following Teofimo Lopez’s unanimous decision victory over Steve Claggett over the weekend, Chris Algieri puts on his analyst hat, analyzes the performance, and explains why Lopez should probably stay at 140 instead of moving up to welterweight. Read some of Algieri’s thoughts below.

Algieri on his reaction to Lopez’s victory over Claggett

“Listen, Claggett brought a lot of will, was in top shape, had a huge beard and could land really good body shots. Teofimo impressed me with his performance, he was obviously in good shape. He knew what was coming – I knew that too, I actually predicted a decision, I know a lot of people predicted a knockout.

“I think it would have been really important for him to make a statement to get the knockout, but it wasn’t for lack of trying, that’s for sure. Claggett put on a tough performance, but it just wasn’t an effective performance. (Claggett) imposed his will, but wasn’t effective.”

About Lopez’s performance and what’s next

“He’s talking about going to 147, which I don’t really recommend. He hasn’t shown the same power as he did in 1935 at 140, so now he’s 5-0 at 140, he’s only got one KO and that was early against Pedro Campa. And even that was more of a grind than a single punch. So I think he has a chance to unify. I prefer him over all the other champions in the weight class, so I think it would be a good idea for him to collect some belts.”

Claggett’s resilience in battle

“His chin was great and he didn’t show any significant wear and tear either, until the last few rounds when his nose started bleeding and he got shaken up a few times. I think he got hurt more times than we could see because he hid it well, but he did really well, he’s got a lot of experience.”

Whether Lopez needs to change his style if he wants to keep up at 147

“Absolutely. Not only are the guys going to be bigger, but he’s going to have to go 12 rounds every time and you don’t want those big guys to finish you off. When you get a 300-pound fighter doing what Steve Claggett does, it’s going to be a very, very difficult night for Teofimo Lopez.

“But we saw that he has conditioning. He threw almost a thousand punches tonight, a career high in terms of number of punches thrown and number of punches landed. So that other style could potentially be there, and he showed that he has the conditioning, even though he’s an explosive guy.”