The ruling is expected to end an ongoing dispute between Lopez and Triller with regards to his mandatory title defense.
For a fight that was never clamored for by fans, an IBF mandatory title defense between unified champion Teofimo Lopez and challenger George Kambosos Jr has already had more drama than it’s worth. ESPN is now citing its sources which indicate that the fight (which Triller won the right to promote via purse bid) must take place in the United States as opposed to Australia. This ruling is expected to give Triller a little time to reschedule its plans for the fight Stateside while settling an ongoing dispute between the company and Lopez regarding the location and time frame for the bout to take place.
The Lopez-Kambosos bout had originally been set for two different dates in June, then postponed to August after Lopez tested positive for COVID, and then pushed back some more to October after Triller wanted to move the bout Down Under in order to recover some of its significant losses incurred by the postponements. Lopez at that point said he would rather vacate the IBF belt than fight under these circumstances.
However with this impending ruling by the sanctioning body it appears that Lopez-Kambosos will move forward for the time being, delaying a much more hotly-anticipated fight in Lopez-Lomachenko 2. Lomachenko has had every intention of rematching Lopez ever since he dismantled Masayoshi Nakatani, but with this expected ruling Lomachenko has now turned his attention towards fighting Richard Commey later this year.
