Toledo will be back on tour this season after a year-long break. Photo: WSL
Filipe Toledo cannot catch a break with the media. After getting dragged through the mud for his poor showings in heavy barrels on tour, he recently did a media appearance on ESPN Brazil where he faced questions clearly designed to re-stoke the fire.
In a segment on the show, the host listed off surfers to Toledo, who then responded whether he surfs better or worse than said surfers. The host didn’t specify if Toledo was comparing himself against these surfers at present day or the peak of their talents. Things got a little awkward.
The most notable response from Filipe was when they asked him who is the better surfer between he and the reigning champ, John John Florence. Toledo paused for a second, looked up at the ceiling, and confidently responded that he is, in fact, better than John John.
If we are going by world titles, John John’s three top Toledo’s two. And if we’re going by Pipeline and/or Teahupo’o barrels, there isn’t much of a contest – it’s John John.
Other surfers that Toledo claimed he’s better than are Kelly Slater (only now that Slater is past his prime, he added), Italo Ferreira, Yago Dora, Tom Carroll, Miguel Pupo, retired Adriano De Souza, and Joao Chianca.
The surfers that Filipe humbly placed above himself were Gabriel Medina, Mick Fanning, and Andy Irons.
“You don’t even need to ask that,” Toledo said when asked about Andy Irons. “He surfs better than the whole world combined.”
Props to ESPN Brazil for giving surf such prominent coverage – way more than its U.S. counterpart, but if I were Toledo’s publicist, I’d have had a few words with ESPN producers. That’s not exactly the energy a guy coming off a year-long break needs heading into the season.
You can watch the interview segment here.
