Teofimo Lopez will defend his lightweight world titles in New York.
Teofimo Lopez would never have imagined that he would spend a year on the sidelines after becoming the unified lightweight champion of the world.
13 months ago in Las Vegas, the American wrested the IBF title from the great Vasiliy Lomachenko and then added the WBO and the WBA titles to his collection.
He was the man to beat in the division after that performance. Lopez was ordered to defend his titles against George Kambosos when talk of an immediate rematch with Lomachenko cooled.
The problems began.
Lopez was unhappy with the promoter's offer to stage the fight. Lopez wanted a bigger pay cheque from Top Rank, but the American promoter refused to budge and Lopez's first title defence went to a purse bid and Triller, a social media and music streaming service, won the broadcast rights with a huge $6m bid.
The IBF stripped Triller of the rights after multiple delays, and awarded them to Eddie Hearn's Matchroom. Lopez will fight in New York this weekend under the Matchroom banner, nine months after the rights were originally awarded.
Lopez said that he felt this had been too long of a last performance and that he was only as good as his last performance.
It's been something. I took the time to focus on myself. I can't believe it. Nine months? It's time to move on.
I'm a little disappointed. I didn't get to fight as many times as I would have liked.
Lopez wants to follow in Floyd's footsteps and get back to work.
You have to have a vision and mindset. Lopez said that a perfect example was Floyd Mayweather.
You've never had anything there and you're focused and dedicated. You're losing quickly if you can't get that.
Lopez became a father a week before the fight. I'm so enamored with him every time I hold him. The New Yorker said he would make it quick so he could return to his son.
Kambosos has other ideas. Lopez's senior is 28 years old and the Australian is 19 pro fights into his career.
He is a big favorite against Lopez, especially with the possibility of massive unification fights against the likes of WBC champion and American Gervonta Davis in the future.
Kambosos said that you don't know what you're going to get from him. You get a lot of lies. It doesn't bother me. He has all the belts.
He is the big star at the moment. He's a big celebrity. He's in the big lights. That's fine.
There was no love lost between the two camps.
Both fighters have a father's name. Lopez is trained by his dad and he caused a stir at the workouts on Tuesday when he got into a fight with Kambosos.
After a lot of pushing and shoving and some colourful language, Lopez Sr was escorted out of the Church St Boxing Gym in Manhattan. The press conference on Wednesday turned into a shouting match between the two sides. The Kambosos will be hoping the build-up is a sign of nerves from the Lopez camp.
Lopez says he is expecting an "all-action packed fight" and has dismissed talk he is thinking of future fights and taking victory over Kambos for granted.
He said it was about the legacy and the glory. You can't have those big fights if you don't beat the guy in front of you first.
I look through the fighters I face. I don't look at them, I look at them. I punch through them.
