By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten Devin Haney of San Francisco will be meeting George Kambosos Jr of Australia in a rematch this Saturday October 15th to defend the IBF, WBA Super World, WBO, WBC ‘Franchise,’ and Ring Magazine World Lightweight Belts. Haney won all of those belts other than the WBC version from Kambosos in June via a unanimous decision. The 12-rounder from Melbourne, Australia can be seen live in America on ESPN and ESPN+ while fans in Canada can see it on TSN 4. It will be broadcast the evening of Oct. 15th, which will be Oct. 16th in Australia. Kambosos originally won his belts last November when he upset Teofimo Lopez by split decision after dropping him in the first round and hitting the deck himself in the 10th and lost them to Haney, who was the WBC champion, in his first defence.
Haney is just 23 years old and has evolved from being a can’t-miss prospect to a world champion following his excellent 138-bout amateur career after getting into the sport as a seven-year-old. He won a silver medal at the USA Junior National Championships in 2013 and reached the quarterfinals of the World Juniors the same year. He then won a gold medal at the 2014 US Junior National Championships and the 2015 USA Youth National Championships.
He was the youngest boxer ever to win the Youth World Championships and captured a total of seven national titles along the way. Haney, who was born in San Francisco and fights out of Las Vegas, then turned pro in December of 2015 as a 16-year-old and has a perfect record of 28-0 as a pro with 15 Kos and has 174 rounds under his belt. He won the WBC Interim World Title in 2019 by stopping Zaur Abdullaev and the full title in his next fight with a unanimous decision over Alfredo Santiago.
Haney defended the title by unanimous decision against Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jorge Linares and Joseph Diaz before beating Kambosos. He’s also won several regional and minor titles along the way including the WBC Youth World, USBA, IBF North American, WBC International, and WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight Belts. Haney stands 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 71-inch reach so he gives up 1.5-inches in height to Kambosos but owns a three-inch reach advantage.
Haney possesses tremendous skills and speed with decent power as his current knockout ratio of 53.6 per cent but has gone the distance in his last five fights. His first four pro bouts took place in Mexico since he was too young to box professionally in America at the time. He’s beaten everybody in front of him so far with his toughest opponents being Kambosos, Diaz Jr., Linares, Gamboa, Santiago, Antonio Moran, Mason Menard, Juan Carlos Burgos and Xolisani Ndongeni.
The 29-year-old Kambosos owns an impressive record of 20-1 with 10 Kos. The native of Sydney turned pro back in 2013 and has 142 rounds of experience under his belt since. He stands just over 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 68-inch reach and has average power with a current knockout ratio of 47.6 per cent and has gone the distance in his last four outings. He’s also got a pretty solid chin but has been dropped before.
Kambosos reportedly won 85 of his 100 amateur bouts and since turning pro has also won the IBF Pan Pacific Lightweight Title along with the Australian NSW, Australian, WBA-PABA, and WBA Oceania Lightweight Belts. Of course, his career highlight though was beating Lopez which he managed to do by being aggressive in the ring and not being afraid to let his hands go.
He turned pro at the age of 19 but other than Haney, Lee Selby and Lopez, he hasn’t faced many other legitimate contenders other than Mickey Bey. He’s also beaten the likes of Brandon Ogilvie, Qamil Balla, Krai Setthaphon, Jose Forero, Rey Perez and Richard Pena. In fact, arguably, the best opponent he’s shared the ring with could very well be Manny Pacquiao when sparring.
Prediction…
Kambosos earned his victory over Teofimo Lopez by taking the fight to him but he wasn’t able to do that against Haney due to Haney’s superior skills. When Kambosos did decide to let his hands go in June it was too little too late. Hopefully he’s learned from that mistake and will start throwing punches from the opening bell this time around. Haney simply possesses better boxing skills and is a much more difficult target to pin down. Kambosos has to throw leather in volume to have a chance of winning but I believe the outcome of this fight will basically be the same as their first meeting, with Haney retaining the belts.
