Team Devin Haney still hasn’t given up on getting a fight against George Kambosos Jr next for the undisputed lightweight championship despite the Australian’s promoter Lou DiBella saying they’ve moved on.
It would seem pretty obvious to most boxing fans that DiBella and IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO 135-lb champion Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) have no intention of making a fight against Haney. However, he and Matchroom are still hoping to set up the contest.
It’s thought that Ryan Garcia is the target for Kambosos’s first title defense of his four belts. Vasily Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum can’t afford the fight with Kambosos, and he’s not likely to pour a ton of money into a contest that he can’t sell to U.S audiences.
Placing the Kambosos vs. Lomachenko on regular ESPN might not attract the fans that the network would be hoping for.
Unfortunately for Dibella, Kambosos hasn’t had the visibility in the U.S in the past for a fight between him and Lomachenko to bring in a considerable number of casual boxing fans to watch the battle.
Ryan Garcia has the best chance of getting the fight with Kambosos because he’s got a massive following on social media. He can singlehandedly bring in the fans by alerting his followers about the contest.
“I think I can’t really stand Lou DiBella, to be honest,” said Frank Smith to Boxing Social when told that DiBella claimed that Matchroom’s counteroffer for a Kambosos vs. Haney fight was ‘insulting.’
“Ultimately, we want to make the biggest fights, and the biggest fight is the undisputed fight between Devin Haney and George Kambosos. Really, if he was sensible, we’d all work together and get this right.
“How can we make this fight happen, and how can we ultimately make the most amount of money possible for our fighters. That’s our job to do for our fighters,” said Smith.
If you look at it from Kambosos and DiBella’s perspective, they want to ensure they hold onto those four belts for as long as possible to keep making money.
The best way to do that is to select opponents that they have a pretty good chance of beating, which in this case is Ryan Garcia. If DiBella were to pick Lomachenko or Haney, he’d be sending Kambosos to an almost sure-thing defeat against those talented fighters.
Although Ryan has better hand speed and punching power than Haney and Lomachenko, he’s not been active lately, and he’s still quite green.
We haven’t seen Ryan in with the type of opposition that Lomachenko or Haney have fought in the pro ranks, so he’s likely to fall apart when the crafty Kambosos starts showing him different looks.
Kambosos is a limited fighter, but he’s a clear guy who will try and get his opponents to chase him around the ring so he can land sneaky shots as he did against Teofimo Lopez in his upset win over him last November.
Kambosos’ fighting style would never work against Haney or Lomachenko because they won’t be fooled the way Teofimo was repeatedly.
“Take out everyone’s interest. Our job is to deliver for our fighters, and I think if Lou DiBella cared about that as much, then these types of fights would happen,” said Smith.
“But let’s see how this plays out. I think George Kambosos wants the Devin Haney fight. I think it’s the fight that makes the most sense.
“We want it; Devin Haney wants it, so we’ll see. Lou says a lot of things, so let’s see,” said Smith when told that DiBella said he’s moved behind the Haney fight and is going in another direction for Kambosos’ next fight.
