IBF orders Lopez-Kambosos

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Sydney-based lightweight George Kambosos Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) will soon be getting his IBF world title opportunity according to the New Jersey-based International Boxing Federation. The IBF has ordered world lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez Jnr (16-0, 12 KOs) to defend his belt against number one contender and mandatory challenger Kambosos.

Lopez has become one of Top Rank’s biggest attractions after dominating Vasiliy Lomachenko over twelve rounds in October.

Kambosis scored a twelve round decision over former world champion Lee Selby in an IBF elimination bout to earn the world title opportunity

The IBF Chairman of the Championship Committee Carlos Ortiz stated that negotiations should commence immediately and be concluded by February 6. If the parties are unable to come to an agreement for this bout within 30 days, the IBF will call for a purse bid.

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has been in negotiations to promote Lopez-Kambosos in Australia during April or May.

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  • Nobody cares if Lopez, Garcia, Davis, Loma, or Haney have one of these stupid belts. They should all just do the Lennox Lewis and throw them in the garbage. Make the fights the fans want to see. Lopez isn’t going to make lightweight for much longer. Would like to see him fight 2 of these guys on the list.

    • Binning the belts would be great, having Super 6 type tournaments to see who’s the best would be great.

      At the moment these guys are just top contenders in my eyes and we won’t know who’s the real champ til they fight each other…. I think it was Riddick Bowe who dumped the belt, rather than face Lennox, but I totally agree with the spirit of your post.

    • Willis, that makes sense! It’s goofy how the commissions have created so many belts and glorify it like it’s a puzzle to figure out who has what! I agree, screw the belts…. Let’s get it on!

      • The belts mean nothing to fans who have IQs over 10. They are just marketing tools for promoters and sanctioning bodies. Isn’t it time that boxing grew up?

        • wait a second you mean we are not going to have a “Steel Cage Money in the Bank” belt? No way! I’m calling my local official

    • Belts matter. I don’t agree with them, but they matter. If there was a UFC style -one champion – that is preferred. If you don’t have this, you have the puppeteers at the top as it is, and on we go. And we get fighters fighting each other when it matters less. Alternatively, you have a points system, like formula 1 do, and that leads to an ultimate champion at years end. But ain’t going to happen.

      • Bateman, “Belt” WOULD matter, “belts” convolutes and often prevents or delays the fights that we want to see.

        To your point about the puppeteers…how is Kambosis the Mandatory?

      • They don’t matter to the ones that are most important-the fans. Eight divisions with one champion in each people knew who the champions were and cared.

    • I would go with The Ring Champions as the real champions. I believe they trace it back to linear champions. Check out their rankings. In the Welterweight division, for example, that belt is vacant. The rankings are as follows: Spence #1, Crawford #2, Pacquiao #3. The only way that vacancy gets filled is if #1 fights #2. If #2 isn’t available, #1 vs. #3 would fill the vacancy. The top guys HAVE to fight one another to be considered champions in that scenario. Check out The Ring’s ratings when you have a moment. When you click on any division, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and they explain how their ratings work. It’s worth a look. I’m pretty sure there’s no sanctioning fees involved for their champions. Take a look and decide for yourself, but this looks like the best alternative to me. Anything beats the current situation with all the belts/champions…

      • Even if you do that there are too many divisions for people to know the champions. Think of the great fights that could be made if boxers couldn’t move to a new division a few pounds away.

        • It’s a start. There would one champion per division if The Ring ratings were the standard, so that would be 17 champions once all vacancies are filled. That’s a fraction of what we have now, especially if you throw in the Gold, Silver, Super, etc Champions. The only issue with The Ring being the standard, is that Oscar de La Hoya owns it, and he’s also a promoter, so that would be looked at as a conflict of interest, so he’d have to sell I suppose.

      • The Ring Magazine is owned by Oscar DeLaHoya of Golden Boy. Ring ratings have an obvious conflict of interest just like it would be if NBC owned TV Guide.

        • Correct Bruce. Ownership would obviously would have to change. I can’t think of a better place to start though if change is going to happen. It would be extremely difficult to change boxing. It’s not like the NFL or NBA, where there’s a single entity (The commissioner of each league) for fans to lobby their complaints to. Where do boxing fans go to if they have ideas for changing things like the 4 champions per division thing? Who makes the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO thing go away? Who stops these sanctioning bodies from creating Gold, Silver, Super champions? I don’t see these sanctioning bodies deciding on their own volition to fold for the betterment of the sport. There’s no single entity that oversees the sport. It looks like we’re stuck with the mess we have.

  • Kambosis, one fight with an elite fighter away from being the gate keeper. He’s not elite. I love him. I love his heart. And he’sa good boxer. But against Teo Lopez, no chance. Sorry.

  • Kamboso is a good fighter, not an elite, but exciting. He is kind of a new version of Michael Katsidis, that will entertain us greatly if the fight against Lopez is made (I am sure it will). I don’t see him lasting 7 rounds with Teofimo, but I see him giving a great, brave effort to be remembered.

    • The fight between Kambosos and Lee Selby was entertaining, Kambosos is rugged and fun to watch but many agree that Teofimo should be fighting the winner of that fight and that was clearly Lee Selby. I understand that Teofimo wants to make money and that fighting less dangerous fighters and avoiding a rematch with Loma are in his plans.

  • First, Lopez has definitely proved he’s the man at Lightweight and I definitely felt he deserved the Decision against Loma, but…..I’m pretty sure the author of this article didn’t see the fight. In no way, shape or form can you say he dominated Loma! It was more like Loma and his team gave away the first 5 or 6 rounds thinking Lopez would tire out from him just posturing. When he finally started punching actively Lopez started losing those rounds. Without a heroic effort by Lopez in round 12, the fight probably should of (I don’t recall the judges exact scorecards) a Draw.

    Still, with all that said, Lopez is only getting better and Kambosis will only be a bump in the road on his way to bigger and better things. I favor Lopez over any of the young prospects at Lightweight. Ironically, the guy I give the best chance to beat him is Haney and it’s the one fight I don’t care to see. I think stylistically it would turn into a track meet and probably result in a controversial Decision no matter who got the nod.

  • I expect Lopez to care of business by a 9th round TKO, but I anticipate a spirited, physical affair.

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