‘The friendship disappeared’: López faces Romero after years of sparring and support

Boxing's most mercurial star is putting an old friendship aside as he moves up to 147lb to challenge Rolly Romero for the welterweight title he won against Ryan Garcia

For more than a decade, Teofimo Lopez's friendship with Rolando Rolly' Romero endured through amateur tournaments, Las Vegas sparring sessions and the mismatched peaks and troughs of two volatile careers. That friendship ended, Lopez says, the moment they signed to fight one another.

On Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena along the Vegas Strip, the 29-year-old Lopez will challenge for Romero's World Boxing Association welterweight title. The former lightweight and junior-welterweight champion is moving up to 147lb in pursuit of a belt in a third division. For Romero, himself a three-weight belt-holder after stacking titles at 135lb and 140lb, a victory would add another marquee name to a resume transformed by last year's upset of Ryan Garcia. The fight will be broadcast globally on Dazn pay-per-view and will see the champion go off as a roughly 2-1 underdog.