Teofimo Lopez was hoping to move straight into a blockbuster unification fight with Ryan Garcia. The WBA has other plans.
Lopez captured the WBA welterweight title last month with a win over Rolando Romero and had made clear he wanted to bypass mandatory challenger Jack Catterall in favor of facing the winner of Garcia-Conor Benn.
Garcia delivered on his end, blowing out Benn in two rounds and confirming afterward that a Lopez fight was exactly what he wanted next.
Catterall wasn’t willing to wait quietly. Having previously agreed to step aside once before, back in 2021 as WBO mandatory challenger, and having gone on to suffer one of the more controversial decision losses in recent memory against Josh Taylor in the fight that followed, he lobbied the WBA hard this time and has now been officially confirmed as mandatory challenger.
According to the WBA’s official statement, the obligation traces back to conditions set when Romero was elevated to Super Champion, which stipulated that the winner of a Shakhram Giyasov-Catterall bout would eventually face the reigning champion.
Lopez inherited that obligation upon beating Romero. The WBA has given both sides a 30-day negotiation window running through October 22, after which the fight could go to a purse bid if no agreement is reached.
The World Boxing Association (WBA) Championship Committee has ordered a mandatory bout between WBA Welterweight Super Champion Teófimo López and Jack Catterall, the organization’s welterweight champion.
The WBA has established a 30-day negotiation period, beginning on September 22, 2026, and concluding at the close of business, Eastern Time, on October 22, 2026.
If the parties fail to reach an agreement within the established period, or if either party notifies the WBA of its decision to discontinue negotiations, the Championship Committee may, with the approval of the WBA President, order a purse bid in accordance with the organization’s rules and regulations.
That timeline puts Lopez’s hoped-for Garcia unification on hold for now, with Catterall standing squarely in the way of a fight that would have been one of the biggest available at 147 pounds.
