Richard Commey-Teofimo Lopez official for December 14th at Madison Square Garden

The IBF lightweight champion and Vasiliy Lomachenko’s most probable next foe will be determined on December 14th when Richard Commey faces challenger Teofimo Lopez at Madison Square Garden. The fight will air on ESPN, which also has some choice quotes from the challenger’s side

According Lopez’s (14-0. 11 KO) manager, David McWater, the 22-year-old will prepare for Commey (29-2, 26 KO) in a “secluded” New Jersey training camp.

“We’re not going to have people there bothering us,” McWater said. “He doesn’t like to train in the famous gyms where there’s a thousand people. He wants his sparring partners there, and we’re bringing in outside sparring so there’s no reason to go somewhere just for sparring.’”

Lopez’s father is already eyeing a post-unification future at 140 pounds.

“We’ll go straight to the 140 division where [Regis] Prograis, Josh Taylor or [Jose] Ramirez will be the [undisputed] champion by then, so we’ll be undisputed in two weight classes in three fights,” he said.

Though Lopez has looked like the Next Big Thing, his inability to dazzle against Masayoshi Nakatani earlier this year has some concerned about his chances with the hard-hitting and incredibly game Commey., who beat down Ray Beltran in his first defense since knocking out Isa Chaniev for the belt in February. It figures to be a competitive, hugely entertaining scrap.

The bout is expected to serve as a co-feature for Terence Crawford’s next title defense, which has yet to be announced but will likely see him face Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Michael Conlan has been linked to the card as well.