Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s interested in putting on a rematch between Teofimo Lopez and Vasily Lomachenko on ESPN pay-per-view next, provided the two fighters win their next fights.
It’ll be a bad look on Teofimo’s part if his promoter Arum has to forcefully drag him kicking & screaming into a rematch with Lomachenko if he’s dead set on fighting him again.
Arum believes a second clash between the unbeaten Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) and former three-division world champion Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) will do good numbers on PPV.
It might require some arm-twisting on Arum’s part to coax the 23-year-old Teofimo to give Lomachenko a rematch, as he seems happy with his 12 round unanimous decision victory over the Ukrainian from last October, and he doesn’t seem excited about the prospects of fighting him again.
“Let’s find out what happens with Teofimo on June 19, then we’ll figure it out,” said Arum to Badlefthook. “I think a rematch between Loma and Teofimo on pay-per-view does a lot of business.”
“All of ‘em, Ali, all the legends, after losing, who isn’t interested in how they come back from it?” Arum said.
Teofimo seems very protective of his win over Lomachenko, as it’s the best thing that he has going for him right now. Teo constantly mentions his win over Lomachenko in almost every interest.
If Teofimo were to fight Lomachenko and lose, he would no longer have the victory to pull out of his pocket like a gun to brag about each time he’s interested. So instead, Teofimo would be back to square one.
It would be a good idea for Teofimo to take the fight with Lomachenko so that he can show the fans that his victory over the then injured Loma wasn’t a fluke. Also, many boxing fans believe that Teofimo is afraid of Lomachenko and that he doesn’t believe he can win the rematch.
The New Yorker Teofimo has been talking a lot lately about battling WBC lightweight champion Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney next. However, Arum said this week that Teofimo WON’T be fighting Haney next because he needs a fight that can be put together quickly for October.
Arum says the options for Teofimo are a lucrative rematch with Lomachenko on pay-per-view or fight the winner of tonight’s fight between 140-pounders Jose Pedraza and Julian Rodriguez. If Teofimo wants to move up to fight the undisputed light-welterweight champion, Josh Taylor, he’ll need to fight the Pedraza vs. Rodriguez winner next.
Teofimo is defending his IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight titles against IBF mandatory George Kambosos Jr (19-1, 10 KOs) next Saturday, June 19th, on Triller pay-per-view.
For his part, Lomachenko is fighting the always tough Masayoshi Nakatani (19-1, 10 KOs) on June 26th on ESPN. Loma, 33, has the harder fight on paper than Teofimo in his match against Australian Kambosos Jr.
