Teofimo Lopez’s first IBF title defense is in shambles as the transient date for his fight against George Kambosos is in purgatory with the challenger demanding more money due to the shiftiness of the fight dates.
ESPN reports that Kambosos’ legal counsel sent a letter to the IBF citing that the promoter, Triller, is in default of its winning purse bid as it yet again changed the fight date. The fight had a date of Monday, October 4th but Triller wanted to move the date once again to October 16th. The venue would also change as the October 4th date from Madison Square Garden would move to the Barclay’s Center later that month. Per Mike Coppinger’s of ESPN, Kambosos attorney object to the amendments made by Triller for the move of the fight to Barclays as it was not specified in Kambosos amended agreement. The challenger also demanded more compensation for the inconvenience of changing the date of the fight so close to the event. The Australian’s attorney also objected to Triller’s refusal to show proof of funds by escrowing the fighter purses prior to the Kambosos heading to the U.S.
If the IBF finds Triller in default, the rights revert to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport which would move the fight to DAZN per ESPN.
You may recall that Triller scored a major victory earlier this year with a purse bid win of $6.018M which was much more than Hearn’s bid of $3.506 million or Top Rank’s $2.315 million. Lopez will receive 65% of the purse, while the challenger would receive 35%. If the purse bid reverts to Hearn, both fighters would be making substantially less than what Triller would have paid them. In that scenario, Triller would lose out on its $1.2 million deposit for the fight with $780K going to Lopez and $420K going to Kambosos not to mention a likely lawsuit.
Payout Perspective:
This is a debacle for Triller and Lopez. Kambosos has a right to be angry here. He is training for his shot at a title shot and the event is being moved less than a couple weeks before the date. Moreover, it appears that he is not in the loop on these changes. For Lopez, he has lost momentum after beating Lomachenko for the IBF title last year. Triller is failing as a promoter. Not only will they lose out on its deposit at MSG, it looks like from the outside that they do not know what they are doing.
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