By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez will be making his defense of his IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight titles against George Kambosos Jr. on November 27th on DAZN.
An announcement on the new date for the Teofimo vs. Kambosos Jr. fight is expected shortly by Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s finalizing the date and location for the fight this weekend, according to ESPN.
Those two are moving into the date previously occupied by the Ryan Garcia vs. Jojo Diaz Jr. fight, which is going to be postponed to sometime in 2022 due to ‘King Ry’ suffering a hand injury training.
Teofimo predicting first-round knockout
“They want to make the fight happen over at Madison Square Garden,” said Teofimo to Punsh Drunk Boxing. “Bringing the five belts that I collected from the Ukrainian. My new contract with ESPN is three fights a year.
“I’m looking forward to fighting Kambosos. I see myself in the first round knocking him out,” said Teofimo. “I’m saying it and I’m going to make sure I do it.
I’ve lost track of all the times the Teofimo-Kambosos Jr fight has been moved. They should have gotten the fight done on October 16th if Kambosos Jr. had signed off on it, but it didn’t happen, unfortunately.
Triller wanted to move the fight off the October 4th date so that they wouldn’t conflict with the Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers game.
Now that Triller is no longer putting on the fight, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing has taken over and they’ll get this thing done next month on November 27th.
Teofimo, 24, wants this nightmare over with so he can move up to 140 to challenge undisputed champion Josh Taylor for his four straps next April.
Teo’s decision to hold onto his IBF lightweight title defend it against mandatory Kambosos Jr. turned out to be a poor move on his part, as he’s lost a year of his career.
Teofimo should have vacated his IBF belt
12 months have gone by since Teofimo last fought in October 2020, and he has NOTHING to show for it. In hindsight, Teofimo could have made one of two moves that would have saved him time and kept from him sitting inactive for 12 months.
If Teofimo had let Top Rank put the fight on, it would have been fine. Yeah, Teofimo wouldn’t have made big money, but this awful wasn’t a big-money type of fight.
For all intents and purposes, this is a voluntary defense in terms of the quality of Teofimo’s opponent. So, Teofimo could have let Top Rank put this albatross fight on, or he could have vacated his IBF title and gone up to 140 to take on Josh Taylor.
Josh Taylor is next for Teofimo in 2022
“Kambosos, he’s a man that’s very insecure. Lomachenko has fought hundreds of fighters with different styles all across the board,” said Teofimo. “What was the difference-maker for me?
“You can’t downplay what I did. The ring IQ is just higher than ‘The Matrix’ [Lomachenko]. It’s higher than the ‘Hi-Tech.’ Vasily Lomachenko, there was probably a lot of favoritism for him in the amateurs. When you bet against Teofimo, you’re going to lose.
“I definitely want to get Josh Taylor because I don’t see any of these guys at 135 that want to fight with me. Nobody is calling out Josh Taylor right now. He’s just trying to stay mad-quiet and get this one fight in Catterall then move up to 147 to face the winner of Porter and Crawford.
“They ask me who I want to fight from Devin, Garcia, and Tank when they know the answers. Those guys don’t want to fight me. I’m willing to fight each and every one. Those guys have had the opportunity. It’s been knocking on their doors.
“This kid [Haney] walks around with his WBC belt everywhere he goes,” said Teofimo. “That’s the only thing that’s keeping him relevant but it’s not even a real belt. It’s not the real WBC,” said Teofimo about Haney’s email belt.
