By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten Gerorge Kambosos Jr of Australia is putting his IBF, WBA Super World, WBO, WBC ‘Franchise,’ and Ring Magazine World Lightweight Belts on the line this Saturday, June 4th against undefeated WBC Champion Devin Haney of San Francisco this weekend. The 12-rounder from Melbourne, Australia can be seen live in America on ESPN while fans in the UK can catch it on Sky Sports Action and those in Canada can see it on TSN 1 and TSN 3. Kambosos won his belts in November when he upset Teofimo Lopez by split decision after dropping him in the first round and hitting the deck himself in the 10th. Haney last fought in December hen he defended his belt four the fourth time with a unanimous decision over Joseph Diaz Jr.
The 28-year-old Kambosos owns a perfect record of 20-0 with 10 Kos. The native of Sydney turned pro back in 2013 and has 130 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 50 per cent. 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 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 Lee Selby and Lopez, he hasn’t faced may 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, the best opponent he’s shared the ring with could well be Manny Pacquiao when sparring. In fact, Pacquiao is expected to be in Kambosos’ corner this weekend.
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 27-0 with 15 Kos and has 162 rounds under his belt. 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 hives up 1.5-inches in height to Kambosos but possesses a three-inch reach advantage. Haney possesses tremendous skills and speed with decent power as his current knockout ratio of 55.6 per cent. His first four pro fights 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 Diaz Jr., Jorge Linares, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Alfredo Santiago, Antonio Moran, Mason Menard, Juan Carlos Burgos and Xolisani Ndongeni.
Prediction…
Kambosos earned his victory over Lopez by taking the fight to him and will try the same against Haney. However, he’ll soon find that Haney possesses better boxing skills than Lopez and will be a more difficult target to pin down. Kambosos knows he needs to throw leather in volume to have a chance of winning but being at home will also help. And let’s not forget that Haney’s father and trainer Bill Haney wasn’t allowed into Australia due to a 30-year-old drug conviction and Yoel Judah is scheduled to take his place in the corner. It’s going to be a hell of a task for Haney to leave Australia with all the belts, but I think he’ll pull it off due to his better boxing skills.
