George Kambosos Jr. says he’s narrowed down his choice for the first defense of his undisputed lightweight titles to Devin Haney and Vasily Lomachenko in a stadium in Australia.
Initially, Kambosos Jr (20-0, 10 KOs) planned to fight in April, but he’s now reportedly pushed back to June. The likely reason for that is the crowds being capped at 50% in Australia.
Boxing fans are beginning to lose patience with how the boastful Kambosos Jr. is milking his 15 minutes of fame and prolonging his decision on who he’ll be fighting next.
It’s strongly believed that Haney, 23, is the one that will ultimately get picked by Team Kambosos for this fight, as he’s the more vulnerable of the two. Lomachenko is a much better-skilled fighter than Kambosos, which would be a bad match-up for him.
It’ll surprise a lot of people if Kambosos Jr. and his team choose Lomachenko because he’s someone that could embarrass him in front of his fans in Australia.
Losing to Haney won’t be a big deal because the American will jab his way to a dull 12 round decision win. But in the case of Lomachenko, he would likely pick Kambosos Jr apart and force him to quit in front of his fans.
The Australian Kambosos Jr, 28, pulled off a miracle upset last November in New York when he unseated IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez Jr. in winning a 12 round split decision.
“I’m fighting either Devin Haney or Vasyl Lomachenko next in Australia. Full stop. From the horse’s mouth,” said George Kambosos Jr. on his next fight.
It wasn’t the best version of Teofimo that we’d seen in his win over a Lomachenko a year earlier.
After coming off a long layoff and dealing with injuries, Teofimo was ripe for the picking, and Kambosos was in the right place at the right time to relieve him of his four straps.
Kambosos’ decision to limit his options to WBC 135-lb belt holder Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) and Lomachenko means that Ryan Garcia is no longer in the running. He’d briefly been considered in the running for the fight with Kambosos Jr.
Kambosos Jr. is a good fighter, but he’s not that type of talent. He’s more along the lines of Lee Selby and Mickey Bey in terms of talent. If Kambosos Jr. chooses Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) as his next opponent, it’s unlikely he’ll last long against the two-time Olympian.
Some boxing fans believe that Kambosos Jr. is essentially selling his titles to the highest bidder, knowing that he lacks the talent to hold onto them against almost any of the top ten counters.
They believe Kambosos lucked out in fighting an injured, weigh-drained, ring rusty Teofimo Lopez Jr.
If not for Teofimo being at his worst, they believe he would have made easy work of Kambosos. The way that Teofimo dominated at specific points in the fight, it’s hard to disagree with those fans. Kambosos Jr. looked like a small road bump when Teofimo was fighting at his best during brief spots during their fight last November.