Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr could be moved to October 16th at Barclays Center

By Boxing News - 09/20/2021 - Comments

By Huck Allen: Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr. is in the process of being moved by Triller Fight Club head boss Ryan Kavanaugh from October 4th at Madison Square Garden in New York to October 16th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. It’s still not official, says Kavanaugh, but the IBF has already approved the date change.

The reason for the move is that Kavanaugh wants to have the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. fight avoid running up against the Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers football game scheduled on the same night on October 4th on Monday.

Interestingly, Kavanaugh wasn’t aware of the Raiders-Chargers game taking place on October 4th when he scheduled the Teofimo-Kambosos Jr fight for that date.

Given that Teofimo – Kambosos Jr. is being sold on FITE TV pay-per-view, it’s critical that it not have boxing fans being pulled away by the Raiders vs. Chargers game on the October 4th date.

The Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. has been a real headache to get done, as it’s already been moved. With Triller bidding $6 million on the fight, they cannot afford to run the fight against the Raiders vs. Chargers game without losing many PPV buys.

Image: Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr could be moved to October 16th at Barclays Center

IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) and IBF mandatory Kambosos Jr. (19-0, 10 KOs) have got to be a little frustrated about how long it’s taken to get the fight done.

But the good news is that it’s likely to take place next month, be it October 4th or 16th. It’s going to happen, and Teofimo and Kambosos can then move on to whatever plans they have.

Teofimo has already made noise about moving up to 140 to challenge the undisputed champion Josh Taylor for his four belts. As far as Kambosos Jr is concerned, he’s convinced he’ll defeat Teofimo, and then he’ll offer Vasily Lomachenko a title shot.

You can argue it would be an excellent public relations move by Kambosos Jr. to give Lomachenko a shot at the titles, as Teofimo is dead set against fighting Loma.

“I’ll give you some breaking news. We’re trying to put it on the 16th [of October] instead of the 2nd for one reason,” said Triller CEO Ryan Kavanaugh to the MMA Hour on the Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr. fight.

“We just realized the Raiders came will be on Monday night the 2nd. I don’t think we want to go against it.

“We also started looking at what else is going that week, and you got the playoffs the next night. You got a big fight that weekend.

“What we really want to do is do it on the 16th [of October] at the Barkleys. It’s not official.

“It’s still on the 2nd, but there’s a big discussion with the management. The IBF already said okay. It’s a great day,” said Kavanaugh.

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