By Sean Jones: June 4th is the date promoter Eddie Hearn is working on with DAZN and promoter Lou DiBella for an undisputed lightweight clash between George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney in Australia.
(Photo credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom)
With the original frontrunner for Kambosos Jr (20-0, 10 KOs) fight, Vasyl Lomachenko, at war in Ukraine, WBC lightweight champion Haney and Hearn have taken the lead spot to face the four-belt champion, George.
Hearn is confident that he’ll get the deal done to have his Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) face IBF/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Kambosos Jr. on June 4th at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
Hearn doesn’t want to sound too gleeful over Lomachenko dropping out of the picture, but he’s clearly VERY happy about Haney being close to getting the lucrative fight.
“June 4th is the proposed date. We’re trying to close that deal at the moment. DAZN are talking to us and to Lou DiBella, hopefully, we can get it agreed and announced in due course,” Hearn said.
It’ll be interesting to see if Kambosos Jr vs. Haney brings in subscribers for DAZN or if it’s a disappointment for them with only a sliver of new subs coming in for that fight.
As long as Hearn does all the talking, it might do well, but if Haney is the one trying to promote the fight, it could be a disaster. Haney lacks charisma, and Kambosos probably won’t be able to attract a lot of interest from U.S boxing fans talking about “them beautiful belts.”
“They’re lowballing us but Devin says he’ll sell two chains. He’s going to be fine,” said Eddie Hearn to the media last Saturday night on the George Kambosos Jr. vs. Haney fight for June 4th in Australia.
“Of course, we are. He’s ready to get on the plane [to travel to Australia to fight George Kambosos],’ said Hearn when asked if Haney is ready to fight Kambosos.
“He’s got diamonds in his teeth. The bad news is that when he goes on the plane to go to Australia, they’re going to have to take them out because they’re not going to allow you through that machine,” Hearn warned Haney about the new diamonds he had implanted in his teeth.
“Oh yeah, as long as I get the belts, I’m alright,” said Haney. “Everything they [Team Kambosos] demanded, we accepted and we’ll go there. Everything they wanted, we said we’ll do, and now it’s on them,” said Haney.
“They said I was pricing myself out too, but if you ask Eddie, he’ll tell you something different. I never priced myself out. Whatever they said Loma is getting, I said, ‘Let’s match that.’ They feel I’m the easier fight [than Vasyl Lomachenko], no problem. Whatever he’s getting, give it to me,” said Haney.
You’d have to give Haney, 23, a huge chance of beating Kambosos because the Australian looked nothing special against the recent injured and weight drained Teofimo Lopez last November.
Had that been a healthy Teofimo, he’d likely have knocked Kambosos out in the first and second round and we wouldn’t have had months of his promoter Lou DiBella trying to shop around for a big-money fight.
“Bull s***,” said Hearn when told that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya wants to make a fight between Ryan Garcia and Haney.
“They would never put Ryan Garcia with Devin Haney. Never, never ever. They were mandatory already. They [Ryan] beat Luke Campbell, who is a great fighter, to become mandatory to Devin Haney.
“DAZN said, ‘That’s a massive fight [Haney vs. Ryan Garcia], let’s make that fight,’ and they could have fought for a world title and they didn’t want to know. They didn’t even want to consider it or discuss it. There is no way Ryan Garcia will fight Devin Haney. No way.
“With Ukraine? That’s a very unfortunate situation. We’re not looking to benefit off of that,” said Eddie Hearn when asked if Vasyl Lomachenko being busy in Ukraine defending against the Russian invasion has helped Haney get the fight with Kambosos.
“George Kambosos can never be undisputed without this fight,” said Hearn on four-belt lightweight champion Kambosos needing to face WBC 135-lb champion Haney for him to have the shot at becoming the undisputed champion.
“Whether you agree with it or don’t agree with it, there will always be a debate. This is the fight to make, we’re ready to go and I’m very confident it’ll happen,” said Hearn.
“And after we fight, he [Kambosos] won’t be undisputed, so he has no way of being undisputed,” said Haney. “I see myself being victorious and me being undisputed like I always dreamed. I can’t wait for the fight to happen. God willing, it does happen.”
