Just a few days away from his fight against George Kambosos, Teofimo Lopez tests positive for COVID-19.
The fight between George Kambosos and Teofimo Lopez for the WBA, IBF, and WBO lightweight titles was initially supposed to take place on the 5th of June but the flight was rescheduled to 19th June due to the exhibition bout between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul which took place on the 4th of June. The wait for these two to fight now continues furthers as Lopez tested positive for COVID-19 on the 15th of June.
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Lopez on his Instagram account, confirmed the news, “By now you’ve heard the news that I have had to withdraw from the fight due to COVID. Being a champion means doing hard things. NO EXCEPTIONS and I choose to keep my fellow athletes safe. I am devastated to disappoint so many people. I know the sacrifices we have all made to get here. I believe I am doing the right thing. I don’t want to infect anybody. Sport has power. I choose to use my power to be a good example. The most powerful thing I can do is protect those I love and I love the sport of boxing and all of the athletes, fans, trainers, promoters and my sponsors.”
The Top Rank promoter, Bob Arum believes that Lopez is to blame himself for testing positive for the virus. He said, “Now Teofimo, he was off with this Triller thing and so forth. There was no reason why before he went into training that he didn’t get vaccinated. No reason! And if he had gotten vaccinated he wouldn’t have lost this payday. So, I feel sorry for him but the fight will still happen. But again, this is different from when we first went into the bubble last June and we had every other fight with a guy getting COVID because nobody really knew how to handle it. But now with the vaccination anybody who gets COVID — shame on them. Shame on them because they haven’t taken the time or they haven’t, for some crazy reason decided not to get vaccinated. That’s nuts!”
The Champion will now put his IBF, WBA, and WBO lightweight titles on the line on the 14th of August in the main event of the Triller Fight Club PPV.
[Image Credit: Teofimo Lopez]
Shashank Iyer