Ryan Kavanaugh’s Triller has shaken the boxing world after defeating both Bob Arum and Eddie Hearn in the IBF purse bid for the WBA (Super), WBO, and IBF lightweight champion of the world Teófimo López’s upcoming title defense against George Kambosos Jr.
Triller, known for exhibition boxing matches such as Mike Tyson versus Roy Jones Jr and also the upcoming Jake Paul vs Ben Askren clash, submitted the winning bid at an astronomical $6,180,000 for the promotional and broadcasting rights for López v Kambosos, outbidding López’s promotional company Top Rank as well as Matchroom.
Meanwhile Bob Arum, the CEO of Top Rank was not very reactive to losing the bid to Kavanaugh, as much as he was irked for seeing Matchroom taking part in the bid.
“If Hearn won the bid, we’d have a lot of explaining to do to ESPN. But [ESPN] understands that the fight was not worth anything near $6 million,” Arum told BoxingScene on Thursday.
“We would have been pissed if Eddie Hearn and Matchroom put in the winning bid. That’s bad policy for him to do that because he has nothing to do with Teófimo,” the 89-year-old promoter asserted.
F–k off! It’s an open market: Eddie Hearn hits back at Bob Arum
It took no time for Arum’s statements to come under the notice of Eddie Hearn, who lashed out at the Top Rank boss for losing the rights to their own fighter, calling it a disaster for the company.
“They let it get to this,” the 41-year-old Briton said while adding how Teófimo López did not get his deserving purse from his previous bout against Vasyl Lomachenko last year in October.
“You know, Bob’s been out there, ‘Oh, Eddie Hearn, I’m f–king pissed off that he’s bid and he’s gotta watch himself now.’ F–k off! It’s an open market,” an inflamed Hearn went on, “If you can’t do a deal with your fighter, and that comes into the open market, you pay the consequences.”
According to the IBF guidelines, the $6 million purse bid will be split 65-35 in favor of López, who will pocket a whopping $3,911,700 together with his team. The reward is sure to make the undefeated lightweight icon happy, who was recently very furious at his promotional company, threatened to do a Floyd Mayweather and part ways with Top Rank.
However, Hearn believes losing the rights to the fight of their biggest asset is disastrous enough for Arum and his company.
“And the consequences is someone else has popped up from nowhere and taken one of your biggest assets on your platform, for ESPN, and put it on another platform. It’s a disaster for Top Rank,” the Matchroom MD added.
