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.
Since all the four major lightweight titles are on the line, the winner of the fight will be crowned as the undisputed lightweight champion.
The last time the lightweight division had an undisputed champion was back in the early 90s when Pernell Whittaker ruled the division. The fight was initially scheduled for Oct. 3 but the talks were derailed after Lopez stated that he wanted more money to fight Lomachenko.
Lomachenko was initially slated to make $3.5 million compared to $1.25 of Lopez, but the two-time Olympic champion has taken a slight pay cut and he will now be paid $3.25 Million, while Lopez has been given a pay bump to $1.5 Million.
The news was first reported by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic.
The fight will air on ESPN, however, prior to the pandemic, the fight was scheduled to take place on April 17 at the Madison Square Garden in New York City and it was supposed to be aired on PPV.
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What took Lomachenko vs Lopez so long to finalize?
This fight was a marquee event for Top Rank Promotions, which promotes both the fighter and it was going to be a moneymaker for the company, however, with Coronavirus pandemic forcing the fight to be made inside a bubble at MGM Grand without fans will result in the promotional company losing out on the gate revenue.
The fight was a highly anticipated one and it was going to generate a lot of revenue from ticket sales.
“Teofimo is a great guy and we will continue to promote his fights. But I think Teofimo is beginning to realize that his aspirations as far as how much his purse should be was based on selling tickets to an arena, to as much as two and a half or three million dollars. Plus the closed-circuit – another million dollars.
“Those revenue streams are gone. But that doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t get a big purse. And he is getting a big purse. But you obviously can’t pay the man what you would be able to otherwise if you had a gate and closed-circuit revenue. It’s as simple as that.” Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotion said The AK & Barak Show on SiriusXM. (H/T – B/R)
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