Lightweight Teofimo Lopez Jr., perhaps boxing’s most electrifying prospect, is headed to Los Angeles to see a hand specialist on Wednesday after suffering a hairline fracture in his right hand.
The 20-year-old Lopez floored William Silva three times — in the first, fifth and sixth rounds — en route to a one-sided, sixth-round knockout on Saturday night in what was supposed to be Lopez’s toughest fight so far.
Lopez thoroughly dominated Silva in a performance that was even more impressive considering that he injured his hand in the first round of the fight, which was the co-feature on the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card headlined by the Regis Prograis-Juan Jose Velasco bout at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told EPSN on Monday that Lopez will see noted hand specialist Dr. Steve Shin, who has worked with several other boxers, including Top Rank fighters Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jose Ramirez. Shin is the hand consultant to the Los Angeles professional teams and USC.
Moretti said that Lopez went to a hospital in New Orleans after the fight to have his hand X-rayed, and he was diagnosed with the hairline fracture.
“He’s in a soft case,” Moretti said. “He said it happened in the first round. We’ll know more after he sees Dr. Shin on Wednesday. There’s no target [for Lopez’s return] until we get a complete diagnosis from Dr. Shin. I wouldn’t venture to say anything more until the doctor tells us what he thinks. What’s the sense of guessing when you have the best hand doctor looking at it on Wednesday?”
Lopez (10-0, 8 KOs), a Las Vegas resident who was a 2016 Olympian for his parents’ home country of Honduras, predicted that he would knock out Silva in the fifth round.
Instead, it took a few seconds into the sixth round for him to get the job done, as he handed Silva (25-2, 14 KOs), 31, of Brazil, the first stoppage loss of his career. Silva’s only previous defeat came by a 10-round decision to then-prospect Felix Verdejo in 2016.
“I hurt my hand early in the fight, but you prepare yourself for the worst possible [scenario],” Lopez said after the bout. “I just put everyone on notice that I’m coming for those world title at 135 pounds.”