Teofimo Lopez Relinquishes Jr. Welterweight Title After Taylor Win, Retirement Claim

Following his impressive win over Josh Taylor on Saturday and becoming a two-division champion, Teofimo Lopez Jr. is relinquishing the linear junior welterweight titles that he won in the bout, according to WBO president Paco Válcarcel.

Lopez, 25, claimed that he was set to retire following the fight against Taylor, stating that he's not getting paid what he deserves as a fighter of his caliber. However, those his camp told ESPN's Mike Coppinger that there's no validity to the retirement claims.

And while relinquishing the title does raise some eyebrows, it may just be a negotiation tactic from the young champion.

Lopez made $2.3 million for the fight against Taylor, one of the biggest purses of his career, for the ESPN main event, per Coppinger.

While appearing on former champion Shawn Porter's "The Porter Way" podcast Tuesday, Lopez expressed his frustration about his perceived lack of value and claimed that he'd only return to the sport if he gets offered a nine-figure contract.

"I'm a two-time undisputed world champion, technically the first male to ever do it, and am I going to get the push like they would push [Terence] Crawford or [Devin] Haney or anybody else, or Canelo [Alvarez] or [Tyson] Fury? No, I'm not going to get that push," Lopez added later.

Lopez was the unified lightweight champion and would have been the undisputed junior welterweight title holder had Taylor not relinquished three belts a while back as he looked for a rematch that never happened against Jack Catterall.

As someone who looked ready to try and dominate the 140-pound division for the foreseeable future, a fight against undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney looked to be in the cards for Lopez.

But he doesn't seem very interested, going as far as to say that Haney "sucks," in an interview with ESPN's Max Kellerman following his win Saturday.

Lopez was noncommittal about who he wanted to fight next during his post-fight interview, saying that his main priority is the upcoming custody trial for his son.

He is 19-1 with 13 knockouts at the time of his retirement announcement. Although, Coppinger rightly pointed out that it isn't rare for boxers to return to the ring after stepping away.