Triller Shockingly Wins The Lopez Vs Kambosos Purse Bids For $6,018,000

There was a huge shock today at the Lopez vs Kambosos Purse bids today as Triller shocked the boxing world and bid an astonishing $6.02M for the promotional rights to Lopez vs Kambosos. Triller was represented by Ryan Kavanaugh who has no promotional involvement in Lopez or Kambosos. They will stage it now on Triller PPV and will be their third boxing show. First was Tyson Jones, Second is Paul-Askren coming up on April 17.

Teofimo Lopez’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank bid $2.32m for Lopez vs Kambosos which was astonishingly low considering the other bids but was expected. This is due to Lopez’s Minimum Guarantee being $1.25m and Top Rank offering him that for this fight and not willing to increase that offer. He bid 15% more than that today but still the lowest of the three.

Matchroom Boxing was also represented at the Lopez vs Kambosos purse bids by Frank Smith who bid an adequate $3.51m which would have most likely been the winning bid had Triller not shockingly bid. Matchroom Boxing was warned by Arum not to bid on Lopez vs Kambosos as it would hurt their relationship to make Joshua Fury.

Why Did Lopez vs Kambosos Go to Purse Bids?

Kambosos Earned his Mandatory position by beating top-10 lightweight Wales’ Lee Selby in a Final Eliminator on the Usyk Chisora PPV Card. Interestingly, that fight also went to purse bids and was won by Matchroom for $277,777 which means Kambosos received 60% ($166,666.20) which is less than a tenth of what he gets for Lopez vs Kambosos.

Lopez vs Kambosos went to purse bids due to Top Rank (Lopez’s Promoter) not being able to agree on finances with either fighter. Lopez who dethroned Lomachenko in a huge upset last October thought that he deserved more than the $1.25m contract minimum offered by Top Rank and therefore decided to take a huge gamble and go to purse bids.

Top Rank has now lost the promotional rights for one of their biggest star’s next fight and with Lopez’s 65% split in this fight ($3.9m) being more than 3x what Top Rank was willing to pay they may lose out on the future fights as well. As a result, Top Rank may have to start offering Lopez a lot more money as the market clearly believes in his marketability.

Why Is Triller Winning the Purse Bids Very Significant?

Triller Winning the purse bids to this fight has a huge impact on boxing due to the size of their bid. As with any other business, when a new competitor comes into the market prices rise as they did with DAZN’s explosive entrance into the market. This is not good for other promoter’s especially with no crowds and coming off a pandemic.

This also represents Triller’s intention to stay in boxing and rectifies the success that Tyson vs Jones had. However, this is make or break for them in some ways as if Lopez Kambosos does not deliver they may quickly exit from the sport of boxing. This is a very risky bid as neither fighter has boxed on PPV yet and this is not a huge fight which means it may fail commercially.

Should Top Rank won it would have gone on ESPN, Should Matchroom won it would have gone on DAZN but now Lopez vs Kambosos ends up on a Triller PPV which gives Teofimo Lopez a brand-new platform to box on and going off the Tyson-Jones PPV numbers could be seen by a huge audience. Is Triller looking to have a long-term involvement in boxing?

Triller’s $6,018,000 Bid means that Teofimo Lopez will receive $3,911,700 (65%) and IBF Mandatory Challenger Australia’s George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr will receive $2,106,300 (35%) for his participation in the bout.