By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez’s title defense against George Kambosos Jr. was finally made official for October 4th on Triller pay-per-view. Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) will be defending his IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO lightweight titles against the Australian Kambosos Jr. (19-0, 10 KOs) at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The card kicks off at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.
Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr.’s card goes for $49.99 and can be ordered on FITE.TV or on iNDemand.
This fight has been a ball & chain for the 24-year-old Teofimo ever since it was signed, and it’s good that it’s almost here. Let’s make this clear from the jump. Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. is NOT a highly anticipated fight.
It’s more like a dental visit than a fight that the boxing public is highly anticipating because it’s on a pay-per-view, it’s a mismatch, and it’s NOT the fight that the fans want to see involving Teofimo.
Boxing fans want to see Teofimo fighting Vasily Lomachenko again, but Teo doesn’t want any of that smoke now that Loma is healthy.
People would be slightly interested in seeing Teofimo fight Kambosos Jr. if the match was shown on regular ESPN or some other free channel, but fans don’t want to pay to see Teo blast a hopeless Joe that doesn’t belong in the same ring with him.
With all the garbage celebrity boxing events that have been shoved down fans’ throats, they want to see a quality fight for a change. Sean Jones hates to say it, but Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. is more of the same clown show type of fight that we’ve been watching lately. Where did the IBF find this guy?
Kambosos earned his IBF mandatory by beating the past his prime 34-year-old Lee Selby by a 12 round split decision. He didn’t have to fight someone good like Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, Lomachenko, Jorge Linares, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, or Devin Haney.
Teofimo was supposed to have gotten this albatross level fight out of the way on June 19th, but then he came down with COVID-19.
There’s no word whether Teofimo was one of the anti-vaxxers or if he was vaccinated and he got a breakthrough infarction from the delta variant form of the dreaded COVID-19. Anyway, Teofimo has now reportedly recovered from his COVID, and we’ll see if he’s having any lingering effects from the illness when he steps inside the ring on October 4th.
Teofimo’s claim to fame in his short pro career was his victory over Vasily Lomachenko on October 17th last year. Unfortunately, Teofimo didn’t get full credit for the win because Lomachenko fought with a torn-up right shoulder and fought him with one arm.
Even with the injury, Lomachenko took over the fight in the second half and had Teofimo looking in serious distress. Teofimo fell apart physically and mentally and didn’t pull things together until the 12th.
The scores were all over the place, worse than ridiculous scores for the Oscar Valdez vs. Robson Conceicao fight last Friday. Yeah, Teofimo did enough to deserve the win over Lomachenko, but just BARELY. It was razor close, but not with the silly scores that were turned in by the judges, who gave it to Teofimo by these oddball scores:
- 116-111
- 119-109 – wow!
- 116-112
Kambosos Jr is some guy who has a couple of fluff wins over 37-year-old Mickey Bey and 34–year-old Lee Selby.
That’s basically it, and for some reason, the IBF felt those wins were good enough to make Kambosis Jr. #1 in their rankings and the mandatory.
If Sean Jones were in charge of the IBF, he’d say ‘Kambosos Jr. needs to be some real fighters for him to earn the mandatory spot. Based on his empty resume, I can’t rank him any higher than the #15 spot, and that’s me being kind.’
This fight is a gimme for Teofimo, and hopefully, we see quality from him in the future. It will be a pity if Teofimo chooses to take easy fights and avoid the talented guys once he moves up to 140.