‘He bottled it’ – Tommy Hyde accuses undefeated American of running scared
Tommy Hyde has accused Kenny Lopez of bottling it and hit out at the American for wasting his time.
Hyde was scheduled to fight the American on a DAZN broadcast show in San Francisco last weekend – and was hoping to end a very impressive debut year with a victory over an unbeaten fighter.
The fact made Lopez was talking a big game, dropping insults and appearing extremely confident helped make it the most eagerly anticipated clash of the Cork man’s young career.
However, the 28-year-old pulled out at late notice and Hyde thinks he knows why.
The 24-year-old Rebel County man thinks Lopez was afraid to fight him.
“I was supposed to fight an undefeated fella from California. He is 9-0 and I’m 7-0, so on paper, it was a great fight. I was really looking forward to the fight. I was 100 confident of winning. Obviously, he wasn’t because he pulled out. I think he bottled it,” Hyde said online.
“I had a look at his Instagram and I saw he was a sparring partner for Nate Diaz, maybe he just wants to be known as that. He’s obviously afraid of losing his undefeated record, so he shouldn’t have taken the fight in the first place and wasted our time.”
Hyde did try find a late replacement and wanted to register his eighth win of a debut year. However, he couldn’t get an opponent in time and it now looks like fight number eight will kick off what promises to be an exciting 2024.
“So with Lopez pulling out we only had a week to find a replacement, for one reason or another five or six opponents fell through and the fight had to be cancelled,” he said in a message to his followers.
It is disappointing for the NoWhere2Hyde fighter but he can take solace in the fact he was so busy in his first 12 months as a pro. Not to mention he now has a natural rival in Lopez and that is a fight that can be cultivated into a bigger fight for next year.
