IBF backs Kambosos, slaps down Triller over contract issue related to Lopez fight
Challenger also pushes back on effort to change fight date again
Unified lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez and IBF mandatory challenger George Kambosos Jr. have a major disagreement on how they think their fight will go, but one thing they and their teams do agree on is that they have no intention of allowing Triller to move the fight yet again to a new date and venue.
Lopez and Kambosos are scheduled to finally meet in the main event of a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view card on Oct. 4 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, but Triller chief Ryan Kavanaugh said on Monday in an interview on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour” that he is trying to move it to Oct. 16 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, which is Madison Square Garden’s rival arena.
Lopez’s team pushed back with lawyer letters to Triller over the issue, both of which I published on Fight Freaks Unite on Monday.
Later, Team Kambosos weighed in when its lawyer, Greg Smith, who also happens to be Canelo Alvarez’s attorney, wrote to IBF president Daryl Peoples and IBF attorney Linda Torres to also say they had no intention of allowing Kavanaugh to move the fight. A copy of that email was also obtained by Fight Freaks Unite and published.
In that email, Smith also detailed to the IBF a significant contractual issue and that Kambosos would not travel to the United States from his home in Australia for the fight until Triller lives up to its obligation.
The IBF wrote back to Smith on Tuesday — another email obtained and published by Fight Freaks Unite — and backed Kambosos, saying Triller must take care of the issue or it will declare Triller in default.
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Photo: Alex Menendez/Triller Fight Club