Teofimo Lopez refusing to move off Oct.4th date like Triller wants

By Boxing News - 09/21/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez says he’s NOT going to be moving off the scheduled October 4th date to October 16th as Triller wants him to do for his title defense against IBF mandatory George Kambsoso Jr.

Triller Fight Club CEO Ryan Kavanaugh wants to move the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. fight after discovering that the Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers NFL game is taking place on October 4th on Monday night.

Not surprisingly, Kavanaugh doesn’t want the Teofimo – Kambosos Jr fight to compete with the Raiders-Chargers game because they would end up losing many pay-per-view buys in going head to head with those two popular NFL teams.

What’s unclear is why Kavanaugh scheduled IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo’s title defense against the little-known Kambosos on the same date as the Raiders-Chargers game.

Did Kavanaugh check the schedule for different sporting events on the October 4th date before moving the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. fight to that date? If not, why didn’t he check?

Image: Teofimo Lopez refusing to move off Oct.4th date like Triller wants

“Just spoke with Teofimo Lopez, who tells me his title fight with George Kambosos Jr. isn’t moving off Oct. 4 as Triller wants. The date is not changing. We’re standing firm on it … This just shows how unorganized they are.”

“Says his team will take legal action if needed,” said grosenstein.

If the low-level fight between Teofimo and Kambosos goes up against the Raiders vs. Chargers fight, they’re likely to end up with far fewer PPV buys.

It doesn’t make sense for Teofimo not to let Triller move the fight to October 16th because the PPV upside won’t be as good if he stays on the October 4th date.

In hindsight, Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) should have listened to his wise owl promoter Bob Arum when he told him that his fight with Kambosos Jr. isn’t a marquee match-up in the eyes of the U.S fans.

For Teofimo to push this simple title defense against Kambosos Jr. into a purse bid, he shot himself in the foot because he’s lost an entire year of his career with this wacky move.

Teofimo likely thought he was clever by taking a non-marquee fight against Kambosos Jr. with the idea of getting every penny. Still, whatever money that Teo will be getting, it won’t be as much as it would have been had he gotten it out of the way quickly and then fought two more times this year.

Teofimo could have fought three times in the last 11 months since his win over Vasily Lomachenko. Instead, Teofimo has been sitting inactive, waiting for Triller to finally get the fight with Kambosos Jr. scheduled and done with.

It’ll be interesting to see if Teofimo continues to push for the purse bid process for his future fights with Top Rank.