George Kambosos‘ lightweight world title fight against Teofimo Lopez could be rescheduled for a sixth time, as promoters look to avoid a clash with other sports for the PPV championship bout.
Triller Fight Club, which won promotional rights to the lightweight championship fight, is considering plans to reschedule the event to October 16 (US) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, just two weeks out from the currently scheduled October 4(US) date from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City.
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The fight has already been moved from at least four announced dates, most recently changing from October 5 to October 4 for fear of going head-to-head with an MLB playoff between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. There was also a risk of losing viewers to ESPN’s Monday Night Football.
“We’re trying to put it on the 16th,”Triller CEO Ryan Kavanaugh told The MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani.
“We just realised the [Las Vegas] Raiders game [versus the Los Angeles Chargers] is that Monday night,” acknowledged Kavanaugh. “Then we started looking at what else is that week. You got the [Major League Baseball] playoffs that night, a big fight later that weekend (third bout between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder on October 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas).
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“What we really want to do, is do it at Barclays on the 16th with a whole Verzuz (battle) connected to it. It’s not official, we’re still as of now on the [4th]. There is a big discussion going on among management.
“The IBF already said OK as long as the fighters [agree]. The last Verzuz we did broke records… to be able to bring that audience to the Teofimo fight and pair them together and cross over, since he’s from Brooklyn, it’s a great date. It’s one of the only dates that makes sense without pushing it out too far.”
The proposed change of date falls within the deadline set by the IBF of October 17 and Barclays Center is available that night and holds more people than the smaller room at MSG.
It’s understood both sides are frustrated by the proposed date change. Kambosos told Wide World of Sports he intends to leave Australia on September 24 for the fight, potentially forgoing the birth of his third child.
If the fight is successfully moved then Kambosos could be at the birth of his child and then fly out for the event.
The fight was first confirmed to take place June 5 in Miami, before Triller moved the event back by two weeks to June 19. The decision was made after it was announced Floyd Mayeather would fight Logan Paul on June 6.
Then June 19 was scrapped at the start of fight week due to Lopez testing positive for Covid-19. They moved it to August 14, before Lopez said he was still impacted by the virus.
Triller to then moved the fight to September 11 and then again to a mid-October date in Australia, before the IBF ruled the fight had to take place in New York by October 17.
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