Teofimo Lopez wants Haney negotiations to start now before Kambosos fight

By Boxing News - 03/16/2021 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman: Teofimo Lopez says he would like to set up a fight against Devin Haney right now to fight after he gets through with his mandatory defense against George Kambosos Jr.

Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) is headlining against Kambosos Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) on a Triller pay-per-view card on May 29th or June 5th, but that’s viewed as a 100% sure-thing win for the 23-year-old Teo.

So what undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo would like to do is have the match against WBC 135-lb champ Haney negotiated now so that he can straight into that one after he beats Kambosos.

“Honestly, if it was right now if I wasn’t,” said Teofimo to AK & Barak Show when asked if he plans on fighting Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, or Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis if he beats Kambosos next. ”

“Top Rank still has the rights to me at the moment, yes, but we can still make another contract deal right now just like Canelo did with Billy Joe. It’s the same thing we can do as well.

Image: Teofimo Lopez wants Haney negotiations to start now before Kambosos fight

“We can make another fight happen after he [Haney] wins; after I win, we can make this fight. This is our date and everything,” said Teofimo.

At this point, given the recent bad blood between Teofimo and his promoters at Top Rank, it’s doubtful that a fight between him and Haney will get negotiated now.

With Teofimo talking about wanting to slip out of the remainder of his 3 1/2-year contract with Top Rank, he may sit for a while.

If Teo is serious about escaping the remaining time on his contract, it’s questionable whether Top Rank will look to negotiate with Haney’s promoters at Matchroom Boxing for a cross-network fight.

“You know, that’s something we’re talking about as well. We’re talking to DAZN about it,” said Teofimo. “Well, I’m not talking to DAZN about it. But whether anybody’s talking, those are the things we can make happen.

“I’m saying Top Rank and whatever promotional company that can get along with it, we can make the [Haney] fight happen, yes,” said Teofimo.

“But when I’m released [from Top Rank], that’s when I’m going to go up to the other networks and be like, ‘Hey, I want your fighter. I would like to fight this fighter. Let’s make that happen. All of them,” said Teofimo when asked who he would like to fight after Kambosos.

Triller won the purse bid to stage Teofimo’s defense against Kambosos Jr last February. Surprisingly, they beat out Teo’s promoters at Top Rank and Matchroom Boxing with a winning bid of over $6 million.

Image: Teofimo Lopez wants Haney negotiations to start now before Kambosos fight

Triller plans on peddling the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr fight to the fans on pay-per-view in a highly questionable move. It’s not considered a PPV-worthy fight, however.

But that’s not stopping Lopez from predicting the fight with Kambosos will bring in 2 million pay-per-view buys, which means he’s viewing the match as twice as popular as the second Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight, which brought in 1.1 million buys.