By: Sean Crose
“All this without a blue check from Twitter. Lol cool story bro! #The Takeover”
So tweeted WBA, IBF and WBO lightweight titlist Teofimo Lopez after upstart Triller won a purse bid to broadcast his upcoming mandatory defense against contender George Kambosos. For those unfamiliar with the process, a purse bid occurs when the parties in a negotiation can’t agree on a contract within a given amount of time. Top Rank, which promotes Lopez, has been at odds with the fighter as to how much he should be paid for the Kambosos fight. Still, the Bob Arum helmed company bid over two million for rights to the upcoming battle.
Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom boxing also bid on the bout, offering three and a half million dollars for the privilege. It was upstart Triller, however, that won the day – and shocked the boxing world- by putting up over seven figures for the fight – six million one hundred eighty thousand dollars, to be exact. It was, to say the least, a massive coup, one few, if any, in the fight business expected. “$6Million from Triller! Goodbye world #LopezKambosos” tweeted Lopez who also went on to tastelessly tweet that ” This shit for everybody on my testicle, please make sure you put the rest in yo mouth, Ho! #TheTakeover”.
Niceties aside, this is enormous news. Kambosos wasn’t seen as a marquee opponent for Lopez, who recently defeated Vasyl Lomachenko for his belts. What’s more, it shows that Triller is now a force to be reckoned with in the fight game. The company made it’s name late last year by having a huge success with the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones exhibition match. That event brought in over a hundred million buys on pay per view. Now journalists like Dan Rafael are indicating Lopez-Kambosos will appear alongside Jake Paul and Ben Askren on their April 17th card.
Although Top Rank will receive a cut of Lopez’ pay for the fight, Lopez has at least proved he’s worth more in the ring that Arum and company believed he was. Or has he? Boxing has seen it’s share of poor financial planning before. In a sense, Lopez’ future largely depends on Lopez himself. If he makes himself a must-see attraction, the days ahead will look bright indeed. If he doesn’t, however, he may see his star fall faster than a comet crashing to earth. No matter what happens, there’s little doubt the twenty-three year old has let his self belief take him a long way.