By: Sean Crose
It’s far from coming, but WBC, WBO, IBF and WBC lightweight player Teofimo Lopez, 16-0, and mandatory challenger George Kambosos, 19-0, are ready to go head to head this weekend. Their scheduled 12-day holiday weekend battle will take place at the Theater in Madison Square Garden and be streamed live on the DAZN streaming service. Although 24-year-old Lopez is known to be an excellent self-promoter, it seems there could be some bad blood between him and the 28-year-old candidate.
“You have to know your place and on Saturday God will take this man down, through me,” Lopez said. “A lot of these people are very ambitious and that’s okay, you have to be. But the thing is, sometimes you don’t understand because maybe you won’t wear it properly. You won’t be everyone’s champion. You will spend your money on yourself instead of giving it back as many fighters do. ”
As far as Lopex is concerned, Kambosos has not behaved in a way that makes Australians worthy of respect. “It’s all about being everyone’s champion,” Lopez said. “Ali is the greatest of all time because of that. He’s made a huge impact on the sport, so for George, I don’t respect him at all – at all. ”
Neither Lopez nor Kambosos have fought in over a year. That may have been commonplace for some high-profile contemporary fighters, but the Lopez-Kambosos fight was expected to end months ago. Unfortunately, everything from Covid-19 to advertising failures gets in the way. On Saturday, however, the two men will finally be able to settle things in the ring. And, make no mistake about it, Lopez feels that he has a goal to deal with.
“The level of disrespect from him,” he said, “you don’t respect my Mother? I told them, I warned him, his manager ‘don’t talk about my family’. I was told they could say anything else, say bad things about me, say I’m a cockroach, an ant. But once you cross that line, that barrier; fuck his manager Peter Kahn and fuck George Kambosos Jr. ”
Lopez may be fired, but he’s still grateful to Eddie Hearn and DAZN for making the fight a reality. “I am grateful that DAZN started this fight,” he said. “I am grateful to Eddie Hearn and everyone who played a part in this film. I’m in the area and on DAZN. It’s a blessing to be here but it’s time to start putting people in their place, and it’s time for them to sit down and be humble. I was humble and I was also humble. There comes a point where you just have to beat these guys. ”
