Unified lightweight champion Lopez is due to take on his IBF mandatory challenger George Kambosos Jr. after the 27-year-old Australian beat Lee Selby last October. Lopez's promoter Top Rank’s Bob Arum has said that his fighter's clash with Kambosos is ‘not a major fight’.
Lopez and Kambosos failed to agree a deal meaning that the fight will go to a purse bid on Thursday. Speaking to Barbershop Conversations, Arum confirmed that his organization has put a bid in.
"It’s Tuesday, and we put our bid in,” Arum said. “Hopefully, we win the bid, and we’re able to Teofimo with Kambosos in Madison Square Garden in June if we’re successful with the bid, and hopefully that’ll happen. But we have to be financially responsible, and we can only bid what makes sense for everybody. When we get full operations with spectators, if we do pay-per-view revenue and with closed circuit, which no one has been able to do, I see us getting back to normal slowly but surely as we get into the spring and summer.”
Arum suggested it would be a mistake for competitor, peer, and occasional colleague Eddie Hearn to make a big bid on behalf of Matchroom Boxing.
“We have a contract with Teofimo for three-and-a-half years," Arum said. "So if Hearn bids on the fight, it’s a one-off for him because Teofimo wins the fight. So let’s say Eddie puts money on the fight putting Teofimo and Kambosos, which is not a major fight on. What is he accomplishing? Because Teofimo comes right back to ESPN should Eddie win the purse bid if Eddie bids. If Eddie, for example, had a fight with one of his fighters that were under contract with Matchroom, and we bid, it would be the same thing. It would be sort of foolish because we would do the purse bid and get the fight, but where would we go from there? You always got to think about how you build it.”
Arum even claimed that a fight with Lopez would not be a big deal.
“Teofimo is not a free agent, so why would Eddie want to bid the fight? And it’s not a major fight. Let’s be honest about it,” he claimed. Kambosos is a good kid and will give a good performance, but again, it’s a 25-to-1 fight. Our job is to program for ESPN, and we wouldn’t put a purse bid in for one of Eddie’s fighters because what are we building?”