Teofimo Lopez Jr vs. George Kambosos Jr could be added to De La Hoya vs. Belfort card on Sept.11 on Triller pay-per-view

By Boxing News - 06/24/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr fight is being talked about getting moved to the undercard of the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Vitor Belfort card on Triller pay-per-view on September 11th.

Lance Pugmire is reporting the news of the likelihood of IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) having his title defense against his IBF mandatory Kambosos Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) moved for the FOURTH time from the new date of August 14th to September 11th.

You have to wonder if Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is somewhere snickering to himself, saying, ‘I told you so’ about the Teofimo vs. George Kambosos Jr fight being unworthy of on pay-per-view. This is the kind of fight that you put on regular ESPN and hope that the fans will watch it.

Maybe it’s one that would do good numbers in Australia, but in the U.S, it’s lower-level stuff. The casual boxing fans have never heard of Kambosos Jr, and the ones that have were put off by his life & death struggle with over-the-hill fighters Lee Selby and Mickey Bey.

The 89-year-old Arum knows from experience what will sell and not sale, and he clearly knew what he was talking about by viewing this fight as a non-marquee match-up, which is why Teofimo should have asked for an exception to fight Vasily Lomachenko in a rematch.

But this is what Teofimo wanted, he pushed for the Kambosos Jr fight, so it’s his baby. Hopefully, the De La Hoya vs. Belfort event isn’t jinxed by having the Teofimo albatross fight being added to the undercard.

I mean, it’s such a gawdawful fight. If Teofimo weren’t so risk-averse, he would dump the WBO belt and face Lomachenko in a rematch instead of taking the lesser match against Kambosos and being demoted to undercard status.

Image: Teofimo Lopez Jr vs. George Kambosos Jr could be added to De La Hoya vs. Belfort card on Sept.11 on Triller pay-per-view

Teofimo-Kambosos Jr fight being moved to the undercard of De La Hoya vs. Belfort card reinforces what Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis both said that tickets weren’t being sold for the previous June 19th date for the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr fight.

The excuse for why the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr fight needed to be postponed to August 14th was due to Teo allegedly coming down with  COVID 19.

But if what Ellerbe said about the tickets not selling for the Teofimo fight is true, it wouldn’t have mattered if they moved it to August 14th.

They’d still have the same problems trying to sell tickets on the new August date.

If the U.S boxing fans view the Teofimo-Kambosos Jr fight as an unworthy fight to pay to see, whether live in person on pay-per-view, the only answer to that problem would be to move the white elephant-level fight between Teofimo and Kambosos Jr to the undercard of the De La Hoya vs. Belfort.

At least by placing that dreadful fight on the De La Hoya-Belford card, it won’t be as much of a problem.

The previously scheduled date for the Teofimo-Kambosos Jr fight are as follows:

  • June 5th – moved due to Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Logan Paul clash
  • June 19th – fight moved due to Teofimo allegedly coming down with COVID 19, although there are rumors that the fight was postponed due to POOR ticket sales for the event.
  • August 14th