Saturday’s busy boxing schedule just got a little less busy.
Triller CEO Ryan Kavanagh told The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger that lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) tested positive for COVID-19, postponing his title defense versus George Kamboso Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) from June 19th to August 14th. It’s worth noting that Lopez has asthma and according to Kavanagh was symptomatic, so even though the new date has been booked that means nothing if things take a considerable turn for the worse for Lopez.
Lopez, who’s coming off an upset win over Vasiliy Lomachenko last October, is signed with Top Rank promotions but his mandatory challenger matchup with Kambosos went to Triller off of its audacious $6 million purse bid. Despite suggestions that he’d leave Top Rank, it looks as if he’s agreed to a new deal that will see this Triller PPV as a one-off and any pay-per-views he headlines moving forward would be on ESPN+.
The Triller Fight Club pay-per-view was also supposed to include former UFC champion Vitor Belfort on the undercard, as well as the usual slew of musical performances as part of a 13-fight marathon of an event. Initially Lopez vs. Kambosos was booked for June 5th but got moved back two weeks after the announcement of Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul on June 6th. Now the whole show has been moved back at least two months, and it’s very much worth monitoring that Triller has already postponed Oscar De La Hoya’s planned return to the ring as well as an exhibition between Evander Holyfield vs. Kevin McBride. Triller has not had an event since Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren in April.
With Lopez vs. Kambosos off the Saturday slate, the other major boxing shows that day are Naoya Inoue vs. Michel Dasmarinas on ESPN, Jermall Charlo vs. Juan Montiel on Showtime, Jaime Munguia vs. Kamil Szeremeta on DAZN, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs. Anderson Silva on PPV.
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