Haney says Kambosos Jr. ducking him, states his promoter never sent an offer

By Boxing News - 02/13/2022 - Comments

By Jim Calfa: Devin Haney reacted on Saturday to the news of George Kambosos Jr’s promoter Lou DiBella having moved on from a fight against him by letting the Australian four-belt champion know that he’s ducking him.

WBC lightweight champion Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) let Kambosos Jr. know that he was in the dark about what was happening with the negotiations by pointing out to him that it was his promoter that made the offer, not his promoter DiBella, as claimed.

The undefeated is ready to brave the deadly 400 mph winds on planet Jupiter for a fight against Kambosos Jr. Really, Haney wants that fight because he views Kambosos as food and there to be taken as a weak champion.

Haney, 23, feels that Kambosos Jr. (20-0, 13 KOs) is just looking for an excuse not to have to fight him. Kambosos Jr. has recently been saying that DAZN isn’t backing Haney.

Promoter Eddie Hearn said on Friday that “DAZN would be happy with Haney fight,” and they’re interested in doing the match with Kambosos. Hearn isn’t sure who Kambosos has been talking to for him to believe that DAZN isn’t interested in a fight between him and Haney.

Many boxing fans believe that Kambosos, 28, will take a tune-up fight next in his first defense of his IBF, WBA, WBC Franchise & WBO lightweight titles before facing Ryan Garcia in the second half of this year.

If Kambosos wants to be the undisputed, he’s got to fight Haney and beat him. Until then, he’s a four-belt champion, with one of those titles being the Franchise strap.

Kambosos recently upset former four-belt champion Teofimo Lopez by a 12 round split decision on November 27th in New York.

Teofimo was reportedly fighting with a throat injury that he came into the fight with and that he had struggled to make the 135-lb limit.

It looks like Haney is now out the running for the fight Kambosos, but perhaps he never had a real chance of getting it in the first place. When you’re competing with Ryan Garcia, it’s tough.

It’ll be good once Kambosos Jr begins making defenses of his four belts because it seems like he and his promoter DiBella are dragging this thing on endlessly in trying to find an opponent.

The way that Kambosos badly struggled whenever Teofimo showed energy in their fight, it’s hard to believe the Australian fighter will still be a champion beyond 2022.

Image: Haney says Kambosos Jr. ducking him, states his promoter never sent an offer

You can argue that Ryan Garcia, Vasily Lomachenko, and Devin Haney will beat Kambosos. His days as the four-belt 135-lb champion are seriously numbered, and it’s only a matter of time before he loses his belts.

Hopefully, Kambosos doesn’t hold the four 135-lb belts hostage and sit on them for over a year before he finally makes his first title defense. What boxing doesn’t need is another world champion that only defends his titles annually.

If it’s not going to be Haney or Lomachenko that Kambosos faces next, he’s going to look bad if he elects to defend against Ryan Garcia after sitting on his titles for eight to twelve months.

All that bold talk by Kambosos about him only wanting to fight the best, and he winds up facing Ryan.

If Kambosos chooses to make a voluntary defense against a bottom feeder, he’ll still be at risk. He’s not a great fighter. I mean, I believe Kambosos’ win over Teofimo was ONLY because he was injured and looked weight drained going into the contest.

If Kambosos ever goes up in weight to 140, Teofimo will have the opportunity to show what he can do against him when 100% healthy and not drained.

I don’t know what he’s being told. No one works closer to DAZN than us,” said Eddie Hearn to Intu Boxing. “They’d be very happy with the Devin Haney fight.

“Maybe they marginally favor the Ryan Garcia fight. It’s a big draw, but the undisputed fight is there to be made. Devin Haney is ready to get on the plane.

“I keep seeing Tweets from Kambosos saying, ‘Devin Haney is all talk. He’s ducking me,’ and Bill [Haney] phones me up going, ‘What’s all this? We don’t understand.’

“He’s [Haney] ready to get on the plane; he has no problems making the fight. DAZN, we can sort that out financially. We’ve made an offer to Lou DiBella. We’ve NEVER received an offer.

“Yes, we had a chat on the phone. We’ve never had an offer in writing for Devin Haney. Make us an offer, call our bluff, and we’ll be there.

“He’s training; he’s always training. It’s not a problem,” said Hearn about Haney. “George Kambosos wants to do his own show in Australia of 70,000 whatever, and then he calls on us to make him an offer because you work on that, it’s your show.

“We’ve told you the financial offer that we can deliver from DAZN to get Devin Haney there. So let’s see.

“He’s the mandatory,” said Hearn about Vasily Lomachenko being the WBO mandatory for Kambosos. “So, think, really, he’s got two choices. It’s Lomachenko or Devin Haney, and Devin Haney is the undisputed fight; let’s get it made,” said Hearn.

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