Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom has fired back at some of the statements from Teofimo Lopez Sr. – the father and head trainer of former lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez.
Lopez is promoted by Top Rank, and last week suffered his first career defeat at the hands of George Kambosos in a major upset.
While he didn’t promote either boxer, Hearn secured the promotional rights through the IBF’s purse bid process – and placed the fight on DAZN, who have a content deal with Matchroom.
In the aftermath of the loss, which saw Kambosos walk away with the WBA, WBC Franchise, IBF, WBO titles, Lopez Sr. placed some of the blame on Hearn and DAZN.
There were very little doubt about the outcome, with most observers scoring the fight in favor of Kambosos.
However, Lopez Sr. felt his son was robbed and could have been set up to take a loss by a rival promoter and network.
“I feel for him, I know his dad seems to want to blame me for the fact that he lost. It sort of comes with the territory I guess, but he deserves a lot of credit because he showed a lot of heart as well,” Hearn told Boxing Social.
“About a week ago it was the best thing he ever done coming to DAZN. All of a sudden he lost a decision that everybody thought he lost and it was my fault and DAZN’s fault. You can’t reason with someone like that. He called me a couple of times and he messaged me saying he can’t believe what I did.
“I said ‘listen, we treated you with unbelievable respect’. I love Teofimo, I love his dad, good people. But you have to move away from delusion.”