Lopez-Kambosos may still happen, but it won’t be October 16, and it won’t be a Triller Fight Club event as reported by Yahoo news
Yahoo! Sports reports that Triller have pulled the plug, meaning this fight will not be happening on Oct. 16.
The IBF still have to rule whether or not Kambosos, their mandatory challenger, is in default after refusing to move the date yet again from Oct. 4 to Oct. 16 unless he got more money — Yahoo! says it was an ask of $400,000. If they rule that Kambosos still gets the guaranteed shot, then the rights to the fight go to Matchroom Boxing, who came in a distant second at February’s purse bid. Matchroom have indicated interest in putting the fight on by the end of 2021, and it would likely wind up a solid DAZN one-off for Lopez, who signed a new deal with Top Rank earlier this year.
Top Rank, for what it’s worth, came in third in the bidding. It’s also possible that Matchroom could pass on their bid at this point and let Top Rank take the fight, which would drastically lower the purses for both Lopez (16-0, 12 KO) and Kambosos (19-0, 10 KO.
The Kambosos -Lopez fight was due to be held on October 4 but promoter Triller Fight Club decided it wanted to move it to October 16 because of a clash with a Monday night NFL game.
First scheduled for June 5, the bout had already been rescheduled four times – once due to Lopez (16-0) testing positive for COVID-19.
Lopez agreed to the latest date swap, however, mandatory challenger Kambosos refused, with his lawyer asking the IBF to remove Triller as promoter.
“Triller has breached the contract, lied to the IBF about Mr. Kambosos’ agreement to move the bout and attempted to coerce Mr. Kambosos into executing an amendment that does not comply with IBF (rules) in that it does not specify a venue,” the letter read, according to CBSsports.com.
“Triller should be declared in default … and should be barred from future purse bids for its egregious behaviour.”
If Kambosos is successful the fighters would share the $A1.65 million purse bid deposit paid by Triller and the fight would go to the promoters who placed the second-highest bid.
Triller wants the IBF to drop Kambosos from their rankings and make Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (22-1-1, 15 KOs) the new contender.
“This is nothing more than Kambosos attempting to extort Triller,” Kavanaugh said.
“This is a sad day for boxing. We are paying him nearly 10 times his next highest payday, almost $A3.44 million.
“We have secured Barclays (Centre), made our deposits, signed with Lopez, and Kambosos is making financial and other demands after confirming this date is in fact better than the fourth.
“This is a pure and simple shakedown and speaks a lot to his character.”
Triller secured the fight with a stunning $US6 million ($A8.3 million) offer, far more than proposed by rival promoters.
