IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr says WBC champ Devin Haney will “run for his life” once he gets a taste of his power early on in their fight on June 4th in Melbourne, Australia.
Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) states that he and his training team have spotted holes in Haney’s game that have been there for a while, and he plans on exploiting them on the night.
The unbeaten Kambosos, 28, says Haney’s defense, which is his strong suit, isn’t as good as he says it is because he gets hit clean quite often.
Kambosos notes that Haney was shaken up in his last two fights against aging veterans Jorge Linares and Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr. Obviously if Haney’s defense was as good as he claims it to be, he wouldn’t have been hurt in those two fights.
Kambosos says Haney boxed himself into a corner when he Tweeted that he would accept the same deal that they’d offered to Vasyl Lomachenko.
Once Lomachenko made it clear that he wouldn’t take the fight duty to the war in Ukraine, Kambosos and his promoter presented the same deal to Haney.
Kambosos says he wants to hear less complaining and more fighting from Haney.
“It’s a huge fight, the biggest fight in Australian history with every single [lightweight] belt on the line,” said George Kambosos Jr in talking about his June 4th fight against Devin Haney.
“I always said that it would be Lomachenko or Haney. Business is business,” said Kambosos when asked if he preferred Lomachenko as his opponent. “Nothing is personal. No one is favored more than the other.
“The Lomachenko deal made more sense through the ESPN deal. I had to work extremely hard for ten years, doing it the hard way, traveling back and forth all over the world for small money, for no money that I lost to get to the top of the sport. I beat the best guy in the division [Teofimo Lopez].
“I took his belt in his own hometown, so I deserve to have my demands and I deserve to have it my way. I’ve earned that. The Lomachenko deal at that stage worked out better.
“The thing that happened was Devin Haney shot himself in the foot because he thought he was in the clear. So he went out on Twitter and said he’d take the same deal as Lomachenko, the same purse, the same, thinking the fight was already done.
“Lomachenko has a bigger fight at the moment [in Ukraine], and I hope he stays safe. But that’s when Devin Haney comes back into play. When you say something, and the world sees it, you’ve got to be a man of your word.
“It came down to it that he finally accepted the same deal as Lomachenko, a hell of a deal. He complains that he’s getting less, he’s getting this. He’s still going to make millions and millions of dollars for his first international trip,” said Kambosos.
Haney said this week that he was willing to accept the deal just so that he can beat Kambosos to become the undisputed lightweight champion.
Once Haney becomes the undisputed champion, he believes the money will come his way in the rematch, and in his other fights. Unfortunately for the 23-year-old Haney, he’s not likely to stay at lightweight for too much longer because he’s still growing, and he might not be fighting in the division by 2023.
“We know he’s made 18 trips to Mexico to fight cab drivers earlier in his career, which he could have fought them all on the same night,” said Kambosos about Haney. “My first three or four trips overseas, I lost money.
“He complains but he’s getting life-changing money as well, and he’s getting an opportunity. He’s not going to come here and we’re going to put him in a caravan park. He’s going to be in a beautiful suite. So less complaining. Just be here and we can talk in the ring.
“I think it plays more into my hands. We’ve seen in his last three fights, especially in the Linares and JoJo Diaz fights. He thinks he’s a defensive fighter, but he gets caught, he gets caught a lot. There are a lot of holes there. This is going to play right into my game.
“The pressure, the output that I have, the speed, the explosiveness that I have. I’ve just become an even better fighter. I’m in my prime right now. I definitely feel like I was in my prime in the Lopez fight. I feel I’m definitely come into my prime right now.
“I believe he will run, he’ll run for his life when he feels the power. And when it comes to his defensive skills, I don’t think they’re that great. In his mind, he might think they’re great, but we’ve seen him hurt before. He’s been wobbled, been rocked, and these guys are way out of their prime or featherweights.
“So, when a natural lightweight in his prime hits him clean and hits him multiple times, that’s what I’m excited to see how he reacts. Every fighter is a threat and you have to respect them all, but I just see the holes, more holes with Devin Haney than I did with the Lopez fight.
“I knew the Lopez fight with his style, his size and his punching he has and that kind of tricky style that he has as well where he can put you out at any time. I saw more danger in that fight, and really, I saw more danger in the Lomachenko fight.
“Again, Haney is a good fighter, he has his style, but we see the holes, we’ve seen the holes for a long time. I’ve been looking at these guys for many years. I’ve got notes on all these guys since I was a rising contender. We know what we have to do in this fight.
“We’re very excited, can’t wait, and looking forward to it,” said Kambosos about his fight with Haney.
