Report- Lopez-Commey to join Crawford card

The night of December 14th in Madison Square Garden is shaping up to be a good one for boxing, as Dan Rafael of ESPN reported that IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey is being planned to take on mandatory challenger Teofimo Lopez.

Per the report, the fight which isn’t finalized yet, would take place on the card that likely has in the main event WBO welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford against Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas. Also, on the bill is Irish prospect Michael Conlan.

The fight between lightweight world titlist Richard Commey and mandatory challenger Teofimo Lopez is being planned for the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York, multiple sources with knowledge of the plans told… https://t.co/6Nkx3CiYep

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) August 26, 2019

Conlan, who is planning to move down to junior featherweight, is slated for the card and could face either former titlist Isaac Dogboe or Genesis Servania. Both names are for Conlan would be a considerable leap in opposition that he has been going up against before.

The name of Dogboe intrigues me more because, after the loss to Emanuel Navarrete back in May, Dogboe hinted that was going to move up in weight classes to featherweight. He suggested that it was getting hard for him to continue making weight at 122 so we will see if a victory will keep him there him as he is looking to rebound.

The addition of Lopez taking on Commey would be for Commey IBF belt, would also be the finale of a WBC title eliminator tournament which saw Lopez defeat Masayoshi Nakatani and Commey defeat Ray Beltran respectively. The winner of that contest would be given the mandatory position to face the winner of the upcoming Vasiliy Lomachenko-Luke Campbell contest taking place this weekend in London for the vacant WBC title.

Both fighter, especially Lopez, have voiced their displeasure about having to go through this tournament for a shot at Lomachencko. That title shot may also depend on the victor of that Loma-Campbell matchup as if Campbell pulls off the upset, would more than likely face the winner of the Devin Haney-Zaur Abdullaev contest.

We’ll know how that plays out before this December card fills out. So far it’s looking like a solid one that will air on ESPN after they give out the Heisman Trophy a few blocks down the street from the Garden.