Vasily Lomachenko reducing his purse to get Teofimo Lopez fight done

By Boxing News - 08/08/2020 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he believes he’ll have the negotiations completed soon for the October 3 fight between WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko and IBF champ Teofimo Lopez.

In startling news, Arum reveals that Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) will be taking a cut in pay to get the contest made.

Teofimo (15-0, 12 KOs) wants an increase from the reported $1.2 million that he’s getting for the fight, a figure that is considerably lower than his opponent. Lomachenko, 32, is getting the lion’s share of the money with a purse of around $3.5 million.

Lomachenko sacrificing money

Just how much of Lomachenko’s purse he’s giving up to help get the fight with Lopez made is unknown. Lopez is said to be looking to get $2 million, but it’s not likely that Lomachenko will be sacrificing $800,000 of his $3.5 million fight purse to make Teofimo happy.

Lomachenko giving up some of his purse to help the cause in making the Lopez fight happens, suggests that he understands that he needs this fight badly at this point in his career.

Loma has been a pro for seven years since 2013, but he still hasn’t been involved in a career-defining fight in all that time. Lomachenko has beaten some excellent fighters along the way, but none of them have had the popularity of Teofimp.

At 32, Lomachenko can’t let this contest with Teofimo escape him because he can’t wait another eight years for a big fight to come along.

The way that Loma is aging, he might not have more than two years left before he’s over the hill and taking losses against the young lions like Miguel Berchelt, Oscar Valdez, and Shakur Stevenson.

Image: Vasily Lomachenko reducing his purse to get Teofimo Lopez fight done

To try and get a little more out of what’s left in his career, Lomachenko will be moving back down to 130 after he faces Teofimo. He doesn’t want to stay at 135 to deal with all the headaches. We’re talking about the following young hungry lions: Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia, Javier Fortuna, and a rematch with Luke Campbell.

Verdejo could be Lomachenko’s plan-B

If the deal doesn’t get done, Teofimo will move on, and Lomachenko will fight fellow Top Rank fighter, Felix Verdejo. That wouldn’t be a great matchup, as Verdejo (27-1, 17 KOs) has already been exposed by journeyman Antonio Lozado Torres in 2018 by a 10th round knockout loss. Verdejo never attempted to avenge that loss.

“I expect to conclude negotiations with Teofimo shortly,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in discussing the Lomachenko vs. Lopez negotiations on The AK and Barak show on SiriusXM.

“Lomachenko is voluntarily reducing his purse in order to get this fight done..”
“We never cut anybody below their minimums, ever,” Arum said in talking about Lomachenko and Lopez.

“That figure that you’ve seen posted, ‘Loma getting $3.5 million,’ that isn’t very far from the truth,” said Arum.

Jorge Linares feels that Lomachenko is taking on a dangerous opponent in Teofimo, and he sees this as a hard fight potentially for the two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Linares, 34, notes that Lomachenko isn’t the same fighter physically as he was when he beat him by a 10th round knockout in 2018. Loma has aged since then, and he’s not looked good in three out of his last four fights.

Lomachenko is getting hit a lot now despite using tons of movement. His face has been looking beaten up more so than his opponents.
Teofimo is a dangerous fight for Lomachenko

Image: Vasily Lomachenko reducing his purse to get Teofimo Lopez fight done

Teofimo is a dangerous opponent for Vasily

“I think it’s a very dangerous fight for Lomachenko,” said Linares to Fighthub about Teofimo being a risky match. “Teofimo has power, and he’s a very difficult guy and a difficult style.

“But come on, Teofimo is not fast like me. He doesn’t have the speed like me. I don’t think he has this [ring IQ] too. He’s more like a hungry guy. He wants to try and kill him [Lomachenko]. That’s it.”

Teofimo isn’t as quick as Linares with his shots, and he doesn’t throw combinations. He’s a one-punch at a time type of fighter who looks to KO his opposition with a single punch every time out.

That style of fighting is risky for Lomachenko because he hasn’t faced anyone with the kind of power that Teofimo has.

While Lomachenko has been in with some big punchers like Roman Martinez, Campbell, Nicholas Walters, and Miguel Marriaga, they didn’t possess the same power as Teofimo.

Getting hit by a fighter like Teofimo will be a new experience because he’s got the power of a welterweight at 135. That’s terrible news for Lomachenko, who was hurt by Linares and put on the seat of his pants.

We could see Loma get knocked down

Lomachenko will need to use a lot more movement than average for him to have a shot at beating the talented KO artist Teofimo because he’s going to be coming for him.

As good as Lomachenko is at creating angles to avoid getting hit, it’s not going to work for him every time against Lopez. Loma is going to get nailed by considerable shots in every round, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he hits the deck two or three times in the fight.

Image: Vasily Lomachenko reducing his purse to get Teofimo Lopez fight done

Lomachenko is a super featherweight going up against a fighter with welterweight power in Teofimo. You can’t expect a 130-pounder to stay on his feet for 12 rounds against a good 147-pounder.

It doesn’t matter how good the super featherweight is. They’re going to get put down y a quality welterweight. Teofimo is an excellent fighter, but his punch resistance is only average. He’s not superhuman with his ability to take heavy shots.

Lomachenko is going to need t to be on his bike in this fight for him to have a chance of beating the 23-year-old Teofimo.

This fight is a young lion vs. an old lion type of matchup, and it could end badly for Lomachenko if he can’t limit the amount of connects from the heavy-handed Lopez.

Lomachenko isn’t the same fighter he once was

“So I don’t think it’s going to be an easy fight or Lopez too,” Linares continued. “It’s not an easy fight because Lomachenko is a very smart guy. He’s fast and very difficult.

“But in another way, Lomachenko is not the same guy as in my fight. He’s not the same. He’s different. He didn’t do as an amazing job after that fight [with me].

“He’s not the same guy. Maybe because he’s old, it’s after two years. People change so much. Lomachenko is training so much in his life. GGG is like that too.

Image: Vasily Lomachenko reducing his purse to get Teofimo Lopez fight done

“So now they go down, or maybe they go up like me. I’m 34 right now. Next month I’m 25, so I’m going to the top.

“Sometimes the boxer is going down, and sometimes they’re going up. Mr. Honda told me yesterday. What happened to you, Jorge. I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because you look so good right now. You’re so old right now. What happened to you? What’s going on with you?’ ‘Maybe it’s the food? Maybe it’s a lot of sushi?'” said Linares.