He’s arrived in Australia for his date with destiny with unified lightweight king George Kambosos Jr, yet Devin Haney made the touch down with one big piece of his team missing: his father.
As per a news story from Fox Sports in Australia, Haney’s father and trainer Bill was not allowed in the country due to a visa issue, this reportedly due to a drug conviction from way back in the 1990s. But Haney, the WBC lightweight champion, is not coming across as being fazed one bit.
Speaking with the press when arriving in Melbourne, Haney says he will “destroy” Kambosos and “come back with four belts.”
Haney, 27-0(15) will now have Yoel Judah (father of course of Zab) as his head trainer (this unless the visa issue can be worked out before June 5, the date of the fight). But Haney is super-confident, as he has been since first calling for – in fact demanding – the Kambosos fight.
“He said I got cold feet, but I’m here in Australia,” 23-year-old Haney said. “I said I would be [here], I stuck to everything I said I would do, and here we go.”
Team-Haney spoke further:
“We are in Australia because we are going to shock the world,” a team member said. “We’re going to come back with four belts. We got one now, but that ain’t good enough. We want four, so how we going to do that? We’re simply going to destroy Mr. George Kambosos from round one to when it done. George, you’re going to sleep in front of all your people; they’re going to watch you snore. You’re going to wake up in the locker room.”
Of course, Kambosos, 20-0(10) and making his maiden title defense, this some six-and-half months after dethroning Teofimo Lopez, is talking a great game himself. The 28-year-old, like his challenger, has zero doubt he will win the fight. It could be a good one, maybe even a great one. Credit goes to Haney for agreeing to make the long trip to Australia in order to make the fight, while credit goes to Kambosos for taking on such a dangerous challenger in his very first title defense.
And credit to the match-makers for giving us an undisputed title fight. The winner of this fight will perhaps be on the verge of real stardom. But who wins? This quality match-up is, in the opinion of plenty of folks, about as close to a 50-50 affair as you could point to today.
