By Sean Jones: Ring Magazine came out with their updated lightweight rankings and have George Kambosos Jr. as their champion, followed by Teofimo Lopez Jr. at #1 and Vasily Lomachenko at #2.
Kambosos is a weak champion and a guy that will likely hold that position long enough for a cup of coffee before being dethroned by Devin Haney or Vasily Lomachenko.
Lomachenko could spoil the party for Kambosos
The recent urging by Kambosos Jr. to Haney to sell off some of his high-priced jewelry collection to come up with the money for the two to fight has desperation written all over it.
After seeing that post, Sean Jones views it as reality likely kicking in for Kambosos, who might not be happy after seeing the offers given to him by Haney’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.
Kambosos asking for Haney to start selling his jewelry collection is a red flag that things aren’t hunky-dory right now.
Kambosos feels that having those four “beautiful belts” will mean an unexpected windfall for him. It doesn’t sound like that’s happening, though, with Kambosos urgently telling Haney to start selling his jewelry.
The thing is, Kambosos doesn’t have much time to negotiate the fight with Haney because Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum is pushing the WBO to make him mandatory. Once that happens, Kambosos will need to fight Lomachenko and hope that the money is good.
Ring Magazine lightweight updated rankings:
Champion: George Kambosos Jr
#1. Teofimo Lopez
#2. Vasyl Lomachenko
#3. Devin Haney
#4. Gervonta Davis
#5. Ryan Garcia
#6. Isaac Cruz
#7. Jojo Diaz
#8. Jorge Linares
#9. Richard Commey
#10. Javier Fortuna
It’s questionable whether Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) should be considered the champion in the Ring at lightweight, given how sickly and weight drained Teofimo was last November.
Even with Teofimo dead at the weight and injured due to an esophagus tear, he almost knocked out Kambosos in the tenth. For me, I don’t consider Kambosos as worthy of being a champion in the Ring rankings.
I’d have Kambosos much lower than the top spot because he looked poor in the only two rounds of the fight in which Teofimo showed energy in the second and tenth rounds.
With Teofimo (16-1, 12 KOs) and his dad saying that he’s moving up to 140 now, he shouldn’t be included in the Ring Magazine rankings at 135.
You saw what Teofimo looked like after draining from 157 lb to make weight at 135 for the Kambosos Jr. fight on November 27th. Teo is done at lightweight, and he’ll now be campaigning at 14o.
As big as Teofimo is, he should be fighting at junior middleweight at 154.
Even that weight might not suit him because we’re still talking about almost 20 lbs of water & muscle weight that Teofimo will need to lose to make the 140-lb limit.
That’s not going to be a piece of cake for Teofimo to lose that weight each time he fights at 140, and Sean Jones wouldn’t be surprised if we soon see Teo forced to move up to 147.
Sean Jones’ lightweight rankings
Champion: Vasily Lomachenko
#1. Gervonta Davis
#2. Devin Haney
#3. Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz
#4. Jorge Linares
#5. Javier Fortuna
#6. Richard Commey
#7. Michel Rivera
#8. Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
#9. Frank Martin
#10. George Kambosos Jr.
Sean Jones doesn’t rate Kambosos as better than the vast majority of the top lightweights, but he is superior to Ryan Garcia. You got to give Kambosos that.
Ryan will likely fade away after he fights Isaac Cruz in April, and he’ll be an afterthought in the eyes of boxing fans.
2022 And Still!!! They Really Don’t Know! But They’ll Learn The Hard Way, Just Like Old Mate Did. I’m Cut From A Different Cloth. I Went Out And Earnt Them, In The Backyards, Time And Time Again. Let’s See How These Kids Deal With That Now 🏟 And Still 🏆 MOLON LABE ⚔️🇬🇷🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/I0zsYB453y
— George “Ferocious” Kambosos Jr (@georgekambosos) January 1, 2022