Report- Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Won’t Happen In August

The saga of the Undisputed World Lightweight Title fight between champ, Teofimo Lopez, and Australian, IBF #1 contender George Kambosos that was supposed to have happened last weekend is apparently going to be delayed even beyond August.

That’s according to multiple media reports on Wednesday night. The Ring’s Ryan O’Hara confirmed through his sources that the newest re-schedule date of August 14th won’t be happening and that Lopez-Kambosos may shift from a “stand alone” main event to being part of Oscar De La Hoya’s exhibition return to the ring in Las Vegas September 11th,

Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr. postponed…again: https://t.co/Z9S1NoBB7d by .@OHaraSports @TeofimoLopez @georgekambosos @BobArum @trboxing @OscarDeLaHoya @triller #Boxing #Boxeo #LopezKambosos

— Bible of Boxing (@ringmagazine) June 24, 2021

The original fight date was moved from June 5th at LoanDepot Park, the baseball home of the Miami Marlins, to June 19th, because Triller didn’t want to compete the next night with the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul PPV, also in Miami.

And that two week delay resulted in the 23 year old champ Lopez testing positive from Covid-19 fight week and was symptomatic. Thus, no chance that it was a “false positive” test and the possibility that the bout could go on Saturday night.

For his part, Kambosos, who had been in the U.S. training for the three months leading up to June, blasted Lopez for what he termed “Pure Irresponsibility.” Saying on Instagram,

“Absolutely devastated! I’ve been away from my kids for13 weeks, I flew my pregnant wife over to be by my side, I put every bit of my life in to this camp with my team. I would have ben Undisputed Champions this weekend, I know it and you know it,” Kambosos wrote.

“Your actions and decisions have affected not only our fight but everyone involved in this fight! Pure irresponsibility on your whole side. Our time will come and I promise you and the world that I’m going to take you out worse than ever for everything. You can run but you can’t hide!….”

The Honduran born, New York raised star Lopez scored an impressive upset decision win on October 17th over one of the top pound for pounder fighters in Vasiliy Lomachenko in Las Vegas. That pushed his career record to 16 – 0, 12 KOs, and, it made him the man to beat at 135 lb. with all the major titles.

As for Kambosos, he was last in action a couple of weeks after that on Halloween winning a hard-fought, split-decision over Britain’s Lee Selby. That made the Australian 19 – 0 with 10 KOs and put him #1 with the IBF.

Triller has had to scramble to try to put Lopez-Kambosos on, and they will likely take a significant financial hit for paying more than $6 million at purse bid for the bout earlier this year. That was more than double the next closest bid.

Triller had previously announced that the 48 year old De Lay Hoya will fight an exhibition in September against former UFC/MMA fighter, Vitor Belfort.

So, depending on Lopez’s health and resuming training, it is the safer play to put Lopez-Kambosos with the De La Hoya card in a combined PPV.