WBC, WBO, WBA lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko is all set to fight IBF lightweight champion, Teofimo Lopez, on Oct. 17 at a bubble in MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The fight has been a highly anticipated one amongst fight fans as they have been wanting to see both the fighters go at it with each other for a long time now.
While the fight was supposed to take place at the Madison Square Garden in New York where much of Lomachenko’s and Lopez’s fanbase resides, the ongoing global pandemic has put the entire world to a grinding halt.
The fight was originally slated to take place on ESPN pay-per-view and it is kind of a PPV worthy fight, given the stature of both the fighters and the hype surrounding it, but fortunately for fight fans, this fight will now be shown exclusively on ESPN.
The PPV would have been easily costed above $65, but ESPN buying exclusive rights to the fight means that it will now be available to 83 Million ESPN subscribers.
Why isn’t the Lomachenko vs Lopez on PPV?
The promoter of this event and of both the fighters, Bob Arum stated that this is the best fight since the pandemic started and he isn’t wrong. It is possibly the most anticipated fight of the year.
“What I’m most proud of is it’s clearly the best fight since the pandemic started,” Arum said. “It would’ve been a major fight even without the pandemic, and now it’s being shown to the public without an extra charge. Nobody has to pay 5 cents to watch it. You don’t even have to be subscribed for $4.99 a month to watch it on ESPN+. If they’re a cable subscriber or a satellite subscriber, they get it for nothing.”
“One of the people with one of the fighters said to me, ‘Well, on pay-per-view, it’d do like a million homes,’ ” Arum recalled.
“I said, ‘No, it won’t. People are out of work. And sometimes people watch the pay-per-view with 10, 12 people in a home, and you can’t do that in the pandemic. People are not gonna be willing to have big crowds in their homes, and I don’t blame them.’ ESPN stepped up to the plate. They’re obviously giving me more [money] for the fight than I normally would get from ESPN, and so they’re to be complimented also. They understand there’s a pandemic, and they’re getting a major, major fight for every sports fan in the country to watch.” (H/T – Boxingscene.com)
Lomachenko is coming off of a unanimous decision win over Luke Campbell at the O2 Arena last August, whereas, Teofimo Lopez is coming off of a second-round TKO victory over Richard Commey in December last year.
Who do you guys think wins this fight?
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