Teofimo Lopez’s issues with Top Rank appear to be fully settled, as Joe Tessitore announced on tonight’s Stevenson-Nakathila broadcast that the 23-year-old lightweight has signed an amended deal with the promoter, which will run through 2023.
Tessitore said the deal will increase Lopez’s purses and all that, pretty much everything you’d expect Lopez to want out of an amended deal.
Lopez (16-0, 12 KO) is set to defend his WBA, IBF, and WBO lightweight titles against George Kambosos Jr on June 19, which will be a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view event. If he gets through that, he’s now expected to fight on ESPN pay-per-view on Oct. 2.
Bob Arum recently told us he thinks there’s big money in a rematch between Lopez and Vasiliy Lomachenko, so you might want to keep that in mind. Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KO) returns on June 26 against Masayoshi Nakatani, so if both fighters win, they’ll line up fine to meet in October.
Lopez and Top Rank had hit a very rough patch after Triller won the purse bid for the Kambosos fight, and not only did Triller win the purse bid, Top Rank didn’t even come in second, also trailing Matchroom Boxing.
But Lopez is a clear young star for Top Rank and ESPN’s boxing brand, so making him happy and locking him up makes sense as a priority. If he keeps going with what he’s already done at 23, he could develop into a major attraction.
