Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jr. have their rematch reportedly in the works for October 16th in Melbourne, Australia. The fight will be shown live during primetime on October 15th in the U.S.
Undisputed lightweight champion Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) has no choice but to return to Australia to face former unified 135-lb champion Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs) because of the rematch clause for their fight on June 5th.
Haney is denying the validity of the reports of him fighting Kambosos in October:
“Cap… I ain’t heard or agreed to nothing,” said Haney on Twitter on Thursday in reacting to the talk of him fighting Kambosos on October 15th.
It’s questionable whether the Haney vs. Kambosos II will be worth the money expenditure by the promoters of the event. Last June, Australian boxing fans quickly jumped on board the Kambosos express to back him, believing he was the real deal.
There’s not much Kambosos can do in the rematch that will give him a chance to defeat Haney other than hope that he suffers an injury during the fight that will hobble him.
Kambosos came into the Haney contest after having pulled off a miracle upset against the injured unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez last November to capture his titles.
However, against Haney, Kambosos had no such luck in terms of him being injured or sick.
Haney-Kambosos 2 will be staged at the 14,820-seat Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. That venue is considerably smaller than the 56,347-seat Marvel Stadium, where Haney and Kambosos fought last month on June 5th.
Kambosos likely won’t be able to convince his fellow Aussies to come out in force to support him for the rematch because boxing fans won’t want to watch him get easily outboxed again by Haney.
It’s pretty obvious why the rematch is being staged at the smaller venue at the Rod Laver Area because many boxing fans don’t see any point for a second fight between Haney and Kambosos, given how one-sided their previous contest was last June.
Kambosos was hopelessly outclassed by Haney, and was forced to eat jabs all night long.
Haney trounced the previously unbeaten Kambosos, defeating him by a 12-round unanimous decision by a set of scores that were arguably far closer than the contest that took place inside the ring.
The scores were 116-112, 118-110, and 116-112, all for Haney. Boxing 247 scored it 11-1 for Haney, and many boxing fans agreed that Devin had almost every round of the fight.
Boxing fans would have preferred to see Haney take advantage of his status as the undisputed lightweight champion by fighting one of these talented fighters:
- Vasyl Lomachenko
- Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis
- Michel Rivera
- Isaac Cruz
- Jeremiah Nakathilia
“The Devin Haney-George Kambosos rematch for the undisputed lightweight championship is being planned for Oct. 16 in Australia, sources tell ESPN, which will accommodate an ESPN prime-time telecast on Oct. 15,” said Mike Coppinger of ESPN.
