Report- IBF Orders Triller To Stage Lopez-Kambosos October 4th

The soap opera that has been ongoing around when and where the Undisputed Lightweight title fight between Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos will be held took another turn Wednesday. This, as the International Boxing Federation told all parties involved that, per the signed contracts, the fight must take place on Monday night October 4th in New York at the Hulu Theater next to Madison Square Garden.

Boxingsecne.com’s Jake Donovan had the details of the IBF’s letter sent to Lopez and Kambosos’ camps, as well as Triller CEO, Ryan Kavanaugh, making clear that Kavanaugh and his broadcast outlet cannot simply move the bout, yet again, to later in the month and to a different location.

Lopez-Kambosos: IBF Stands Firm On October 4 Date https://t.co/j1ut3zEwJp pic.twitter.com/OWvlcVIGhX

— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) September 22, 2021

Donovan’s item quotes from the IBF letter sent by chief legal counsel Linda Torres stating,

“We expect no additional postponements and the fight to take place on October 4, 2021 as per the contracts,” Linda Torres, lead counsel for the IBF informed the attorneys for Lopez, Kambosos and Triller via official letter, a copy of which has been obtained by BoxingScene.com. “Mr. Kambosos has clearly expressed that he is unwilling to fly around the world until Triller has complied with its obligations to provide a plan to get him home in a reasonable time and manner.

“Given that Mr. Kambosos is scheduled to depart Australia on September 25, the IBF agrees that Triller must fulfill its obligations to secure round-trip travel no later than September 23, 2021. Mr. Kambosos should be able to undertake his final preparations for the fight knowing that plans have been confirmed to get him home after the event.

Earlier this week, Kavanaugh told the “MMA Hour” video show/podcast that he wanted to move the bout by 12 days to October 16th and to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, a bigger venue. This would be the fifth different time that the bout originally scheduled for June 5th in Miami would have moved dates or suggested locations.

“We’re trying to put it on the 16th…for one reason. We just realized the Raiders game was that Monday night…I don’t think we want to go against. And we started looking at what else is that week? You got the (MLB Wildcard) playoffs the next night (Tuesday October 5th). And you’ve got a big fight (Fury-Wilder III) for that weekend,” Kavanaugh told the show.

“What we really want to do is the 16th (Saturday) at Barclays with a Verzuz (music) connected to it. It’s not official…The IBF already said ‘Ok’ as long as the fighters approve it, obviously…. To be able to bring that audience (Verzuz) to the Teofimo fight and pair them together…especially since he’s from Brooklyn.  From all the dates we’re seeing, it’s the one that makes sense…without pushing it out too far.”

Obviously, the IBF and the fighters didn’t agree to that. So, the fight is still ordered for Monday night October 4th.

The Honduran born, New York raised star Lopez scored an impressive upset decision win his last time out last October 17th beating 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.

All of this comes on the heels of Triller’s disastrous Evander Holyfield-Vitor Belfort PPV, patched together on 8 days notice for September 11th in South Florida. This after reports that fewer than 2,000 tickets had been sold for Oscar De La Hoya to fight Belfort at L.A.’s Staples Center. De La Hoya then claimed to be positive for Covid 19 and couldn’t fight in the fight.

The “fight” lasted less than two minutes with Belfort overwhelming the 58 year old Holyfield. And, worse for Triller, they reportedly had fewer than 150k PPV buys for a massive loss.

Now, we wait to see if they follow through, as ordered, with the guaranteeing the travel and accommodations for Kambosos and his team to come this week from Australia to the USA.

And, if not, there will be yet another messy chapter and more uncertainty to this Lopez title defense.