Regis Prograis wasn’t about to kick Teofimo Lopez while he was down, despite all their recent vitriol.  

The junior welterweight titlist from New Orleans offered some concern about and encouragement to Lopez, the 140-pound contender and former unified lightweight champion, after the latter’s somewhat lackluster—some have said fortunate—win over Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin this past weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Prograis, who is coming off a spirited stoppage over Jose Zepeda last month to win the WBC 140-pound title, and Lopez have been going at each other through the media in recent weeks about how their potential fight would turn out, with Prograis promising he would send Lopez to the “ER”.

But the New Orleans native apparently decided to dial back the invective in the wake of Lopez’s split decision win over Martin, a decision that sparked some minor controversy as some felt that the Spaniard had done enough to secure a win. In a remarkable moment after the fight, a chastened Lopez was caught by ESPN cameras questioning himself, ‘Do I still got it?’

“All jokes aside I hope Teo is ok,” Prograis wrote on Twitter. “Boxing is a tough and lonely sport and it can be very taxing mentally. I think he might need some changes in his personal life.”

Many observers have insisted that Lopez, who has admitted to having mental health issues over the years, needs to replace his father, the garrulous Lopez Sr., with a new trainer.

It has been a period of lows for Lopez ever since he defeated Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020 to win three of the four lightweight belts. Last November, Lopez lost his lightweight belts to George Kambosos Jr. last November in what was one of that year’s major upsets. Lopez was then prompted to move up to 140, and while he stopped Pedro Campa in his debut at the weight this past August, the reaction to his win over Martin would seem to indicate that he has failed to capture the boxing public’s imagination thus far at 140.  

After the fight, Lopez, 25, apologized to the crowd and criticized Martin for “running” and trying to spoil the show. Many fans also thought it was curious that one judge, Pasquale Procopio of Quebec, scored eight of 10 rounds for Lopez.