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Eddie Hearn Shuts Down $10 Million Demand From Teofimo Lopez: ‘It Ain’t Gonna Happen’

Published 01/12/2021, 10:50 AM EST

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Unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez reportedly demanded $10 million from Matchroom to stage a fight against WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. Although Matchroom is interested in materializing the event, they are unwilling to pay the numbers to ‘Takeover’.

Eddie Hearn, Match Room CEO, claimed to have delivered a ‘nice offer’ to Lopez. While Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia seem to have finalized a fight between them, it leaves Lopez and Haney as the other two undefeated champions of the roster.

Meanwhile, Haney also expressed a deep desire to fight Lopez. He hinted at the matchup via social media. However, the current condition urges Matchroom and Teofimo Lopez to come to terms.

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That said, Hearn didn’t even acknowledge Lopez as the real unified champion. The 23-year-old grabbed the WBC ‘franchise’, WBO, WBA, and IBF world titles by beating Vasyl Lomachenko.

Similarly, Haney defended his WBC lightweight title against Yuriorkis Gamboa. But Eddie Hearn ridiculed Lopez’s ‘franchise’ WBC title to rule him out as the unified champion.

As per DAZN, Hearn connected with Boxing Social to talk about the ongoing scenario.

“I did say to him, and this is my honest opinion, he should be undisputed. We shouldn’t be in this position that we’re in, but he’s not undisputed because the other governing bodies do not recognize the Franchise champion as someone that can unify.”

Hearn further added, “So the only way he (Lopez) can become undisputed by fact and on paper is to fight Devin Haney. He deserves to be undisputed. He beat the No. 1 lightweight, who used to be undisputed in Vasyl Lomachenko.”

Eddie Hearn blasts Teofimo Lopez and Bob Arum

Hearn further brought Bob Arum into the mix and blasted him for Lopez’s $10 million demand. If not $10 million, Hearn vowed to deliver a lucrative offer but lashed out at the Top Rank CEO for failing to settle on an amount for his prodigy, Teofimo Lopez.

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Speaking about it, Hean said, “I think Teofimo Lopez against Haney is a wonderful fight. Listen, [Teofimo] asked me for $10 million for that fight. You can’t get there, but I’m sure we can make him a nice offer.

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“Teofimo is a nightmare at the moment for Bob Arum, and Bob isn’t mincing his words at the moment. He’s had enough. So he’s saying, ‘I want this, $5 million minimum, I want 8. I want 9, I want 10.’

“So right now, I’ll leave that to Bob and Top Rank to put those numbers together because in this world right now, it ain’t going to happen.”

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Amid all the rigmarole, 2021 looks good for the lightweight unit. If Davis and Garcia fight each other, it will demand a clash between Lopez and Haney to settle the absolute best in the division.

We can expect them to negotiate a condition between themselves. If they cannot do so, the lightweight roster will remain stacked for another year with no relevant fights taking place.

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Written by:

Raj Sarkar

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A senior boxing writer at EssentiallySports, Raj Sarkar is a mass media graduate who is currently pursuing his master’s degree in broadcast journalism. In addition to his current role, he has worked with the MMA team at EssentiallySports and has interviewed prominent fighters such as Ritu Phogat and 'The Red King' Rory MacDonald. He combined his bachelor's degree with his adoration for combat sports and has a combined 2000 plus bylines in MMA and boxing over the last two years.
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