By Sean Jones: Chris Mannix of DAZN says he was told insiders that Teofimo Lopez is still sick with COVID 19 and that he likely won’t be well enough to defend against George Kambosos Jr by September 11th.
There are still many boxing fans that doubt that Teofimo is sick at all. Instead, they see it as just a ruse on his part due to poor ticket sales for his previously scheduled June 19th fight against Kambosos Jr.
As a result, the undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) may not be able to face Vasily Lomachenko in December as Teo Sr is hoping to happen.
Mannix suggests that the former three-division world champion Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) should look for an opponent to stay busy until he can face Teofimo in early 2022.
Lomachenko was firing on all eight cylinders last Saturday night, defeating Masayoshi Nakatani by a ninth round knockout on ESPN+ in Las Vegas.
The fight was the first for Loma, 33 since he lost his four 135-lb titles to Teofimo last October.
The performance by Lomachenko was imposing with how he schooled Nakatani, 5’11 1/2″, knocking him down twice before stopping him in the ninth.
Lomachenko looked far better beating Nakatani than Teofimid did two years ago with a grueling 12 round decision..
“I’ve been told by people close to Lopez that he is still very sick and that he’s still dealing with the effects of COVID-19,” said Chris Mannix on his JABS program at DAZN Boxing Show.
“So whenever he actually gets over it, he’s probably going to need a month-and-a-half, two months of a training camp to get back into shape,” said Mannix.
What a waste of time for Teofimo to be ill, which will delay his title defense against Kambosos. There’s very little interest in this fight by U.S boxing fans compared to the rematch with Lomachenko.
If Teofimo is sick, he needs to take his time before he returns to the ring because he
This is probably the last time Kambosos Jr will be getting a title shot. Once he loses to Teofimo, he’ll be pushed down to the bottom of the rankings.
That’s why he’s going to go all out trying to pull off the upset, and he might get lucky if Teo is less than 100% after coming back from a bout with COVID 19.
“People have kind of pinpointed September 11th as the date for Lopez-Kambosos – don’t count on it,” Mannix said.
“If I’m Lomachenko, I don’t want to just kind of sit back and wait for Lopez to win this fight against Kambosos and wait for him to be ready to fight him again.
“Look at some of the top guys at 135 pounds, make a fight with them, and then go on to fight Lopez in a big match early next year.”
Mannix’s idea for Lomachenko to stay busy sounds swell, but he’s probably not going to have too many takers after what he did to Nakatani. That performance may have scared off the entire top 15 from wanting to mix it up with Loma.
