IBF number one contender George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos 19-0 (10) has called on undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo ‘The Takeover’ Lopez 16-0 (12) to face him or vacate one of his titles.
The outspoken Australian travelled to London to defeat former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby in his own backyard in October to become the mandatory challenger for Lopez’s red belt.
Earlier this month the IBF ordered Lopez to enter into a month-long free negotiation period to make the Kambosos fight, which looks likely to land in Australia in May.
The 27-year-old Sydneysider is pushing hard for his world title opportunity.
“If you don’t want to fight me – vacate the belt,” Kambosos said to Fightnews. “He said he put an offer out. Bob Arum said that he’s a liar. He has no authority to send out contracts. Myself and Devin Haney have received nothing.
“We are hoping it will be all done in a couple of weeks and we’ll have a date for Kambosos vs Lopez. We should have it done by February 6 which is the deadline the IBF ordered.”
Lopez shot to stardom last year when he surprised Vasiliy Lomachenko in Las Vegas in October to win the WBA, WBO, IBF and WBC ‘Franchise’ titles by unanimous decision.
But with the belts come mandatory obligations and Kambosos isn’t planning on stepping aside anytime soon.
“I am in a fantastic position. I am the mandatory to Lopez. Mandatory is now my favourite word,” Kambosos said.
“I beat Lee Selby in his backyard to become mandatory. I beat Micky Bey in his hometown also. No other lightweight is doing that.
“[Ryan] Garcia, Haney, [Gervonta] Davis and Lopez are American boys, so obviously they are going to promote their guys.
“No other lightweight in the world has been going into the other fighter’s backyard and doing what we have been doing – beating these former world champs.”
Kambosos says he was impressed by Lopez’s performance against Lomachenko, a victory that not only added three extra belts to his collection but also catapulted him into pound-for-pound contention, but cautioned against getting too cocky off the back of one win.
“It was a great win by Lopez to beat Lomachenko, but he beat a guy who was gun-shy for seven rounds,” Kambosos said.
“There are many holes in Lopez’ style. I said the same about Loma which proved correct. Lopez is very beatable. The Japanese boxer Masayoshi Nakatani showed in his fight with Lopez that he was not hurt at any point in their fight. We tried to fight Nakatani in Japan but they would not fight me. He didn’t want anything to do with us.
“Beating Lopez will not only make me the IBF champion but the WBO, WBC and WBA super champion. All this hard work has made it possible. I will show that Australian fighters can mix it up and beat the best in the world!”
