George Kambosos Jr. took the high road on Sunday in reacting to former undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and his dad Lopez Sr. claiming that their fight was 10-2 in their favor at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Teofimo (16-1, 12 KOs) and his trainer Lopez Sr. were having a hard time trying to understand what had happened to them in losing to the underdog Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) by a 12 round split decision. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Teofimo was dropped in the fight and was outboxed the entire 12 round fight by the lighter hitting Kambosos in the main event. What’s unclear is what gave Teofimo and his dad the impression that their side should have won by a lopsided score?
You could tell from looking at Teofimo’s cut and badly bruised face that he’d gotten the worst of it from Kambosos, but it was strange that he was so unaware of what had taken place inside the ring.
Kambosos has no words for Teofimo’s 10-2 claim
“I don’t need to respond to that. The whole world – look at what people are saying. He’s delusional, and he’ll look back at it and go, ‘I was wrong.’ He’s lost a lot of fans from doing that,” said Kambosos to Matchroom Boxing in reacting to Teofimo saying he won 10-2.
“Instead of being a true champ and saying, ‘You know what? You beat me fair and square.’ He had to come out and try and steal the show again, but his own fans reacted the way they did [by booing], but it’s okay, it’s fine. I got all the belts.
“I believe so. I got to see a few things, but I believe I’ll be there,” said Kambosos about next Saturday’s fight between WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney and Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz Jr. on December 4th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got a lot of good mutual respect with Haney, so I’m looking forward to seeing if he can handle the business. That’s got to be in Australia,” said Kambosos on Haney needing to fight him in Australia for all four lightweight titles in 2022.
Teofimo and his dad seemed like they’d just stepped out of an alien flying saucer from another planet after the Kambosos fight last Saturday night.
Teo and dad Lopez Sr. were coming with a view of the fight from outer space and didn’t match what had taken place inside the ring.
For both of them to say that it should have been a 10-2 victory, they sounded demented.
Haney must come to Australia for Kambosos fight
“I’ve taken the hard road. I’ve been in the trenches overseas, and I’ve got everything now. It’s time. If they want a show, they’ve got to come to see me. We’re going to have 80,000 over there [in Australia]. The Australians and the Greeks over there.
“The whole of Australia is going to go crazy. That’s the plan,” said Kambosos.
We’ll see how much Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) wants the chance to become the undisputed lightweight champion. If he’s confident of victory, he’ll make the trek to fight to Australia to fight Kambosos in his backyard in Sydney in front of 80,000 fans.
If Haney decides not to take the fight, Kambosos will have a lot of takers willing to fight him in Australia. These are some of the potential options Kambosos will have for his next fight on home turf:
- Ryan Garcia
- Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Shakur Stevenson
- Oscar Valdez
- Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
- Devin Haney
“I think when he put me down in round ten, I got up, and he tried to finish me off, and I was still there throwing punches and still there,” said Kambosos on being dropped in the tenth round by Teofimo. “I think that psychologically destroyed him as well.
“‘This guy isn’t going; this guy is still here. What is he made of? What’s inside of Kambosos because he’s still here.’ I knew that would deflate him, so I came out in round eleven, and that was probably my best round, round eleven. In round twelve, I closed the show.
“My last three fights have been split decisions, but I’ve been doing them in their backyards. Mickey Bey was here [United States], and I was nowhere near that. Lee Selby was in London, and I was nowhere near a split.
“Obviously, this fight was nowhere near a split, but it was destiny. I was in the hospital. It was precautionary, and I was fine,” said Kambosos when asked what he did last Saturday night to celebrate his win over Teofimo.
“Teofimo was there as well. It was just checks, they wanted to check my eyes, stitch my eye up, and I was ready to go after that. By the time I got back, it was pretty late. I got some nice food and went upstairs and just relaxed,” said Kambosos.
In fairness to Mickey Bey and Lee Selby, both of their fights against Kambosos were razor-close affairs where the judges got things right by scoring the two contests split decisions.
Kambosos didn’t dominate either of those guys. In fact, Selby and Bey did a better job against Kambosos than Teofimo did, which tells you a lot about Teo.
