NEW YORK – Teofimo Lopez smirked when he was asked about George Kambosos Jr.’s next fight.

Lopez loves taking shots at his rival. He wasn’t about to pass on an opportunity to suggest Kambosos’ bout with unbeaten IBF junior welterweight champ Richardson Hitchins is a championship chance Lopez’s nemesis doesn’t deserve.

Australia's Kambosos has won only one of his five fights definitively since he upset Lopez by split decision in November 2021. That hasn’t prevented promoters Eddie Hearn and Lou DiBella from securing a 140-pound title shot for Kambosos at the same venue – The Theater at Madison Square Garden – where Kambosos memorably beat Lopez 3½ years ago.

Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and DAZN announced Wednesday what The Ring first reported three weeks ago – that Hitchins-Kambosos will headline a June 14 card at The Theater.

. He gladly took a few seconds away from promoting his 12-round fight Friday night against Arnold Barboza Jr. to needle Kambosos, who has criticized Lopez for not giving him credit for his career-changing win in their 12-round lightweight title fight.

“Well, you’re welcome, Kambosos,” Lopez told The Ring. “As long as Teofimo stays on top, they’ll keep using him and recycling him. It’s all good. It’s all good in my hood. Whatever they do, however they do it. I think since it’s the IBF, they gotta do the 10-pound limit, second-day weigh-in. … I think Hitchins definitely outboxes Kambosos. With his range and the way he uses his jab, I think he’s gonna give a lotta problems to Kambosos.”

Brooklyn’s Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) will make his first defense of an IBF belt he won five months ago when he boxes Kambosos (22-3, 10 KOs).

Hitchins outboxed another Australian, previously unbeaten southpaw Liam Paro, to win the IBF junior welterweight crown Dec. 7 at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hitchins, 27, only beat Paro (25-1, 15 KOs) by split decision, but the 2016 Haitian Olympian clearly outpointed him.

The IBF ranked Kambosos third among its top 15 junior welterweight contenders even before Kambosos beat late replacement Jake Wyllie in his last fight.

Before Kambosos’ convincing victory over Australia’s Wyllie (17-2, 16 KOs, 1 NC) on March 22 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, he had won only one of his four prior bouts. That win wasn’t definitive, either, because British southpaw Maxi Hughes made matters difficult for Kambosos on his way to narrowly losing a 12-round majority decision in July 2023.

His high ranking by the IBF was strange because Kambosos, 31, had not boxed at or near the junior welterweight limit in more than 11 years before he faced Wyllie.

Lopez is 5-0 since his split-decision defeat to Kambosos. Barboza (32-0, 11 KOs), the WBO interim junior welterweight champ, should still test Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) in the third of five fights DAZN Pay-Per-View will distribute from Times Square ($59.99).

Two of Lopez’s rivals, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia, will fight after him in separate bouts.

Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), a former fully unified lightweight champ from Henderson, Nevada, will face former WBC/WBO 140-pound champ Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs), of Avenal, California, in the 12-round, 144-pound co-feature.

Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC), of Victorville, California, and Rolando “Rolly” Romero (16-2, 13 KOs), of North Las Vegas, Nevada, are set to square off in the main event – a 12-round, 147-pound bout.

DAZN’s coverage is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. ET. The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves” pay-per-view show costs $59.99 in the United States and can be bundled with another DAZN Pay-Per-View event Saturday night for $89.99.

The second card will feature four-weight world champion Canelo Alvarez, who will try to re-unify all of boxing’s super middleweight titles when he encounters unbeaten Cuban William Scull at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs), of Guadalajara, Mexico, holds 168-pound championships from The Ring, WBA, WBC and WBO. Scull (23-0, 9 KOs), who resides and trains in Germany, holds the IBF belt.