Devin Haney will be defending his undisputed lightweight championship two months from now against former champ George Kambosos Jr on October 15th at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. The fight will be shown on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+
Although the hardcore boxing fans have been well aware of the Haney-Kambosos II rematch for well over a month now, it’s now official, and the casuals are now going to know about it.
Haney already beat Kambosos by a decisive 12 round unanimous decision last June in Melbourne, Australia, but there will be a second fight due to the rematch clause in the contract. Kambosos exercised it, so he now gets a second chance at Haney.
Without much punching power to speak of, Kambosos Jr will have difficulty trying to beat Haney because he doesn’t match up with him in terms of boxing skills. The guys that have given Haney problems during his career had some pop in their punches, but Kambosos lacks the power to get the job done.
The Rod Laver Arena is considerably smaller than the location for the first fight at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
The seating capacity of the Rod Laver Arena is 14,820 compared to the 53,359 of the Marvel Stadium. You can argue the reason that the promoters picked a smaller venue is that the Australians likely won’t come out in the same numbers as they did in the first fight due to Kambosos’ one-sided loss. In other words, they don’t want to watch Kambosos lose again to Haney.
“George Kambosos is quiet right now like he should have been before our first fight. I wish him a healthy training camp,” Haney said. “I’m expecting a hungry and determined Kambosos on October 16th in Melbourne. I will be prepared for any adjustment he brings. This is a great opportunity to gain more Aussie fans and add to my legacy.”
This fight is standing in the way of much bigger matches for Haney against Vasyl Lomachenko, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia, and Isaac Cruz.
It’s too bad Haney has to waste another fight against Kambosos because there would be a lot of fan interest in seeing him take on Lomachenko, Garcia, Tank Davis, and Pitbull Cruz.
