Kambosos, Haney kick off promotion of undisputed lightweight title fight
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One week after George Kambosos Jr. notched a massive upset of Teofimo Lopez on Nov. 27 to win the lineal and unified lightweight world championship, he was ringside to watch as titleholder Devin Haney outpointed Joseph Diaz Jr. to retain his version of the 135-pound title.
During a joint interview after the fight, Kambosos and Haney professed their desire to fight each other to unify titles and produce the first undisputed lightweight world champion of the four-belt era.
Although it was by no means an easy deal to make — and, in fact, Kambosos initially agreed to make his first defense against former unified champion and onetime pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko until Ukraine’s Lomachenko bowed out to remain at home and fight in the war against invading Russia — Kambosos-Haney is now finalized after a mad dash in recent days to get the agreement done in time to satisfy the needed promotional time the Australian government backers putting up much of the money required.
They will meet on June 4 in American prime time on ESPN at the 50,000-seat Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, where the fight will be on pay-per-view in the afternoon of June 5. Organizers aim to break the Australian boxing attendance record of 51,026 set by the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn welterweight title fight in Brisbane in 2017.
On Thursday evening (Friday morning in Australia) the fighters appeared at a joint news conference to announce the fight with Australia’s Kambosos at the stadium with his belts spread out in front of him and Haney, his father/trainer Bill Haney, Kambosos promoter Lou DiBella and Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, now Haney’s co-promoter with DiBella, at a Los Angeles television studio.
Despite being separated by nearly 8,000 miles, Kambosos and Haney, who were generally respectful of each other, both had their say on the biggest fight of their careers and one of the most significant fights in Australian boxing history.
Haney, who has been working with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn on a fight-by-fight basis, parted way with him and broadcaster DAZN, which paid millions to show his last six fights, in order to get the fight, which meant signing a multi-fight deal with DiBella and Top Rank, which controls the ESPN boxing inventory.
As part of the deal, Haney (27-0, 15 KOs), 23, of Las Vegas, who will be making his fifth defense of the WBC title, also agreed to an rematch in Australia should he defeat 28-year-okd Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs), who is of Greek heritage and the reason the fight is in Melbourne; it is home to the largest Greek population in the world outside of Greece.
Kambosos has been a road warrior, having not boxed in Australia since 2017. Since then he has fought in the United States, Malaysia, Greece and England. From the moment he beat Lopez by split decision in their 2021 fight of the year candidate, Kambosos said he wanted to have his first defense at home.
“After five years of chasing championship glory abroad and fighting in enemy territory, I return home to defend what I have conquered in the boxing world, my world lightweight titles,” Kambosos said. “Everything I have put my mind to and manifested has come true with my relentless hard work, dedication and discipline to the sport I love. I have always said I would become world champion the hard way, fighting abroad and then bring back a mega stadium fight to make my world title defense.
“On June 4, I get to do just that at home in Australia’s biggest boxing event ever, when I defend my IBF, WBO, WBA, WBC ‘franchise’ and Ring magazine lightweight world titles against Devin Haney, who will be putting up his version of his WBC title. I am very excited and hungry to continue building my legacy, and I will be victorious by any means necessary on June 4 when Haney steps up into the lion's den of Marvel Stadium against this Aussie Greek lion. I will take not only his belt but put a serious dent in his young career.”
After Haney told Kambosos he wanted to fight him next following the Diaz fight, he said he would have no problem fighting him in Australia and he will soon be on his way.
“I began my career fighting in small bars in Mexico. Now I’m on the cusp of greatness showcasing my skills on the world’s stage fighting for lightweight supremacy,” Haney said. “I didn’t come this far to only come this far. Come June 4, I claim my place in history and add to my legacy! Undisputed lightweight king. I’m coming for all the belts.”
DiBella and Kambosos manager Peter Kahn could have lined up a soft-touch opponent for Kambosos to fight at home in a victory-lap fight, but Kambosos insisted on a top opponent.
“It was a fantastic win (versus Lopez), a great win, against all odds, 13-1 underdog,” Kambosos said. “But I knew what I was gonna do that night. I never changed. I said all along, I will be world champion, especially on that night. But that’s a thing of the past now. I’m never content. I’m always striving for more and more. That’s why I chased the biggest names. There was only two names I ever asked for, for this stadium fight. I could’ve fought anybody. Any person I could’ve picked, but I went for one of the best names, Lomachenko, Devin Haney. Unfortunately, Lomachenko’s not available. Beautiful. Devin Haney, step up. Now we’ll take your belt.
“I’m a Spartan warrior. I want the best fights. I want the best warriors to keep showing the world what I’m about. I could’ve fought anybody. But could I do that on my homecoming fight, my return fight, (at) this beautiful stadium? Give you guys an easy fight and (have fans) leave with a sour taste in your mouth? Never. I can’t look at myself in the mirror. I said, ‘I’ll fight the best guys. I’ll bring this fight back to Australia.’ And that I did.”
DiBella would have been happy to match Kambosos with an easier opponent, but gave him credit for insisting on a top foe.
“George Kambosos is a different breed,” DiBella said. “He sought out the challenge of Vasiliy Lomachenko to give the people of Australia the biggest event possible. When duty to country made Loma unavailable, George demanded the biggest event possible and greatest challenge in Devin Haney. Credit goes to George for his unprecedented drive to greatness and to Devin Haney for being a man of his word and accepting the final lightweight unification for boxing fans worldwide.”
When Lomachenko dropped out, Haney said he would accept the same deal Lomachenko did and DiBella said that is what he got.
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Gotta admire Kambo's insistence on fighting the best and Spence willingness to go down under.
Yo Dan is there room here for a TV fight reminder, just stumbled on DAZN offering for today in time to catch the main. TY