Teofimo Lopez Agrees To Top Rank Extension- Lomachenko Rematch?

Despite the fact that Undisputed Lightweight champ Teofimo Lopez is readying to defend on Triller “Fight Club” against Australian George Kambosos Saturday night in Miami, he was making news last night about agreeing to come back to Top Rank Boxing/ESPN starting this Fall.

The network made the announcement of Lopez agreeing to be part of Top Rank through 2023, as part of their broadcast of the Shakur Stevenson-Jeremiah Nakathila bout in Las Vegas.

.@TeofimoLopez has signed an amended deal with Top Rank that runs through 2023, with an expected return date of Oct. 2 on ESPN pay-per-view 🤝 pic.twitter.com/gbzeOnlUPF

— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) June 13, 2021

As play by play man Joe Tessitore relayed, Lopez is being given a significant raise in his per fight guarantee and will also by part of Top Rank’s PPV plans. And, this will apparently start in October. More on that in a moment.

The extension announcement comes on the heels of Top Rank not being able to get Lopez to agree to their offer for his mandatory defense with Kambosos earlier this year. The fight subsequently went to a purse bid and Triller put a massive overreach guarantee of over $6 million, which Lopez will make over $3.5 million off of.

However, unbeaten 23 year old Lopez and his management team obviously realized that the Triller offer wasn’t going to be “the norm” moving forward and decided to come back to the bargaining table with Top Rank.

So, if there is going to be a PPV for Lopez, it seems that fight will be potentially with former unified world champ Vasyl Lomachenko. Lopez scored the signature win of his career when he defeated one of the top pound for pound fighters in the world by unanimous decision last October in Vegas. However, there was no immediate rematch clause in the contract for their first fight.

Now, Lomachencko will fight contender Masayoshi Nakatani of Japan the week after Lopez’s defense on June 26th. So, if Loma wins, the Lopez rematch will line up on a time line for the Fall. Obviously, that’s the bout that Top Rank/ESPN are hoping for with the Lomachenko revenge angle storyline.