Boxing: Kambosos v Lopez

Boxing: Kambosos v Lopez

LIVE & LOUD! From 12pm Sunday 28 November

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Come & enjoy the freshest cold beer around while watching all the action, whether it's on our 2.8m MEGAscreen or in our Smoker Friendly BEER GARDEN!

+ 🍳 KITCHEN OPEN from 12pm⁠

+ 🎱 $1 POOL TABLES after the bout

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Teófimo López vs. George Kambosos Jr. is an upcoming lightweight professional boxing match between unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and The Ring lightweight champion Teófimo López, and IBF mandatory challenger George Kambosos Jr. The fight will take place on November 27, 2021 at the Hulu Theater, and will be broadcast live exclusively on the streaming service DAZN.[1]

After López's upset unanimous decision victory of Ukrainian two-time Olympic champion and pound-for-pound star Vasiliy Lomachenko,[2] López was called out by Lomachenko for a rematch, which did not materialize.[3][4] He was also called out by fellow American lightweight Devin Haney, as well as by Kambosos Jr., who had beaten Lee Selby to become the mandatory challenger to López's IBF title.[5] Relations between López and Top Rank turned sour, after Top Rank offered López $1.25 million to face Kambosos Jr., his contract minimum.[6] With López and Top Rank not coming to an agreement, the fight went to a purse bid. On February 25, Triller won the purse bid for $6 million, to stage the fight between López and Kambosos Jr.[7] On April 16, the fight was initially announced for June 5, 2021 at LoanDepot Park in Miami, with the undercard involving an exhibition bout between Kevin McBride, and former undisputed cruiserweight and undisputed heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield.[8] On May 12, the bout was rescheduled for June 19, with Holyfield vs. McBride being removed from the undercard, before once again being pushed back to August 14, due to López testing positive for COVID-19. As the Miami Marlins have a game scheduled that day at LoanDepot Park, a new venue was to be announced.[9]

More complications arose: Triller attempted to stage the fight in the challenger Kambosos' home country of Australia.[10] This proved controversial, because at the time Australia was in lockdown, which would have forced the champion López to arrive in the country at least 2 weeks beforehand and cut weight while in government-mandated isolation. The IBF took López's team's side and ruled against the move.[11] On August 15, Triller co-founder Ryan Kavanaugh announced that he was trying to find a venue for the fight in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.[12] Over a week later, on August 23, it was announced that the fight would take place in López's home city, at the Hulu Theater in New York City on October 4, 2021.[13] It was announced on September 26 that the fight had a new date and venue of October 16 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.[14] Early October it was announced that Triller would not go ahead with the fight on October 16, 2021 after almost $10 million spent on the promotional costs and no agreement reached regarding the date change.[15][16][17]

On October 6, it transpired that the IBF had found Triller in default of its contract obligation to stage the fight, and that its rights would be awarded to the second highest bidder, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom, meaning that the fight will be shown live exclusively on the streaming service DAZN.[18][19]

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