By Sean Jones: Promoter Eddie Hearn says undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. prefers a fight with WBC champion Devin Haney over Vasily Lomachenko because it is one for all the belts rather than a simple defense.
Hearn sounds more than a little worried about Top Rank pushing for the World Boxing Organization to order IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/ WBO lightweight champion Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) to defend against his WBO mandatory Lomachenko next.
WBO to decide Kambosos’ fate
If the WBO listens to Top Rank and orders Kambosos to defend against the talented mandatory Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs), the only chance Hearn has of Haney getting a fight against George is if the Australian vacates his WBO strap.
Unfortunately, if he does that, it’ll take all the air out of an undisputed clash that Hearn has been banging on about. That’s a fight that Hearn NEEDS to try and turn Haney, a guy with a painfully dull fighting style, into a star of sorts.
Without Haney becoming the undisputed champion, Hearn faces an uphill climb to try and turn him into a superstar because his style is so hard on the eyes.
If Lomachenko gets the fight with Kambosos ahead of Haney, the outcome will be obvious. Lomachenko will likely easily beat the limited Kambosos and send him scurrying back to the contender ranks from whence he came. In that case, Haney will head to the 140-lb division rather than face a near-certain loss at the hands of Lomachenko.
Team Kambosos prefers Haney over Lomachenko
Sometimes Hearn sounds like he’s going a little overboard when he comments on the type of fights he believes possible for his fighters. Still, in this case, he’s likely dead-0n correct about Team Kambosos preferring Haney as their next rather than Lomachenko.
The sole reason Kambosos’ management would prefer Haney for George over Lomachenko is that he’s utterly beatable, and they obviously feel confident that he beats the Matchroom Boxing promoted fighter.
What we’ve seen from Lomachenko in his last two fights against Richard Commey and Masayoshi Nakatani is a fighter that is on another level than Kambosos, and it wouldn’t be a good match-up for the Australian.
“That’ll [Haney] obviously be most attractive for George Kambosos, said Eddie Hearn to ESNEWS on his belief that Kambosos will be ordered by the WBO to defend against Kambosos if he doesn’t face Haney.
“You’ve got a very interesting situation now where Top Rank is trying to push [Vasily] Lomachenko as the mandatory, but if he [Kambosos] doesn’t fight the undisputed fight [against Haney], I think they will make a fight with Lomachenko,” said Hearn.
“I don’t think George Kambosos or Devin Haney has any fear of Lomachenko, but I do think they would rather fight Devin Haney in an undisputed fight than fight Lomachenko in a defense [of his WBO 135-lb title].
“So that probably he’s going to fight us, to be honest with you,” Hearn continued about his view that Haney being the more important fight for Kambosos for the undisputed lightweight championship than a title defense against Lomachenko.
“It doesn’t change the fact that they [Team Kambosos] are going to want a huge amount of money for that fight, so they should. It’ll be our job to put that together with either the Australian government or whoever that fight might be staged.
“Part of my reason for being in the Middle East this week is to discuss various side opportunities with various countries, and that could be another one in the mix, but I know George would love to do that in Australia,” Hearn said of a potential Kambosos vs. Haney fight.
Eddie needed to put in so much hard work to try and lure Team Kambosos into taking the fight with Haney over Lomachenko because it’s already transparently clear that’s the direction they’re heading.
As Sean Jones already pointed out, Kambosos’ only chance for a victory is to fight the light-hitting Haney and hope he can win a decision in Australia.
If Kambosos faces Lomachenko, it’s basically going to be a handing over of the belts ceremony because he stands NO chance of beating the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine.
Hearn wants Tank to fight non-PBC guys
It appears that Hearn doesn’t realize what the overall objective is with Mayweather Promotions when it comes to what they want from Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Number one, Mayweather Promotions don’t want Tank to lose because he’s making them good money.
Gervonta is like an oil well that is faithfully pumping out oil and making the company that owns it wealthy.
Secondly, the only way Tank can continue to produce money for Mayweather Promotions without becoming a ‘dried up oil well’ is for them to continue to match him carefully against beatable opposition.
If Mayweather promotions suddenly change the way they match Tank, he’ll surely start losing, and the gold that he brings in we’ll soon disappear.
He’ll be a played-out oil well, and for that reason, Mayweather Promotions are going to resist that natural process from taking place as long as possible by matching him against strictly in-house opposition like Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero.
“From our point of view, I know it was a purse bid, but we did Kambosos against [Teofimo] Lopez, and we did Haney against Jojo Diaz,” Hearn said. “We’re already showing great fights in that division.
“The bigger issue is if Tank [Davis] remains in that PBC mindset. I know he’s not going to leave PBC, but if you stay in that mindset of, ‘I’m just going to fight in-house guys, really the only fight for Tank next is Rolly Romero.
“I’m not saying that’s a terrible fight, but if we’re making Haney against Kambosos, and Ryan Garcia is fighting Isaac Cruz or whoever it is, there are bigger fights in the division.
“So hopefully, Tank and those guys can look outside the box a little bit to make great fights. I know there’s a lot of talk about how many buys Cruz against Tank did. I don’t really care. What I know is Tank against Ryan Garcia does a million buys or 800,000 buys.
“So, therefore, sometimes we can’t just be naive enough to say, ‘He’s a pay-per-view.’ If he’s doing 100,000 buys or whatever that number is, why wouldn’t you want to make a fighter that does 800,000 or 1 million? The only way to do those buys is to get a fight that is not with the PBC.
“That doesn’t mean it can’t be on FOX, or it can’t be on Showtime, but you have to think outside of the box for opponents to attract those mega-fights sometimes,” said Hearn.
It’s useless for Hearn and other promoters to expect Mayweather Promotions to change the way they match Gervonta to hope that they can set up fights with him because that’s not going to happen.
Mayweather Promotions have already shown their cards in how they intend on scheduling fights with Gervonta, and they’re noting to change that pattern now that he’s nearing 30.