By Sean Jones: Lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. says that now that he holds the gold with his four titles, it’s now up to the top fighters like Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Ryan Garcia to get out of their “comfort zone” to come to Australia to fight him.
Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) is getting ahead of himself by talking about future fights with Tank Davis and Ryan because he has WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney in front of him for their undisputed clash on June 5th at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
Many boxing fans view Kambosos as a one-hit-wonder, a fighter that capitalized on an injured and badly depleted Teofimo Lopez last November.
Many people predict that Kambosos will lose his June 5th fight against Haney and then get beaten a second time by him in their contractual rematch.
Once Kambosos loses those two fights to Haney, his 15 minutes of fame will effectively be over, and he’ll slowly be forgotten.
Like a lot of one-hit wonders, Kambosos will continue to get fights against contenders wanting to take advantage of his former world championship status, but it’s logical to assume that he won’t be winning any more world titles.
If Kambosos can’t beat Haney, he can forget about mixing it with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Ryan Garcia, Vasyl Lomachenko, Shakur Stevenson, or even a newcomer to the lightweight division Jeremiah Nakathila.
There’s no point for the 28-year-old Kambosos Jr. looking at other dishes when he still hasn’t cleaned his plate against Haney (27-0, 15 KOs).
But the fact that Kambosos is talking about fights against Tank, Ryan, and Vasyl Lomachenko shows how much his lucky win over Teofimo Lopez last November has gone entirely to his head, making him believe that he’s going to hold onto “them beautiful belts.
“That’s the exciting part knowing that I’ll be the top guy,” said George Kambosos Jr to Fighthype on what it’ll be like once he beats Devin Haney to become the undisputed champion at lightweight.
“Obviously, I’m the top guy right now and just keep proving it instead of collecting all these belts, knowing that you’ve got all these other big-name guys but don’t have all the accolades,” said Kambosos.
Kambosos is NOT the top guy at 135; no way. He’s what you call a belt holder. At the same time, Kambosos holds many belts, but only because he lucked out in taking on an injured Teofimo Lopez.
The perceived top guy by the boxing public right now is a toss-up between Lomachenko and Tank Davis. If it were put to the vote, the boxing public would choose Tank as #1, Lomachenko #2, and Kambosos #3.
“There are a lot of mega-fights and a lot of mega-fights here,” said Kambosos. “They say that when you hold the gold, you hold the keys, and that’s what it’s been for this fight [Devin Haney].
“We hold the gold, and we can do it our way. When you continue to hold the gold, you can continue to bring the big fights here [Australia]. Ryan Garcia says he’ll come and fight in Australia. Let’s hope so. He struggles to find the gyms in America, so it would be tough for him to come all the way here,” said Kambosos.
Again, once Kambosos loses his titles to Haney in their two fights, he won’t get too many takers in the lightweight division that will be willing to travel to Australia to fight him.
Kambosos will still probably be able to get fighters like Nakathila, Miguel Berchelt, Isaac Cruz, and Yuriorkis Gamboa to travel to Australia to fight him, but not the top guys.
“Lomachenko, I know he’d come here no matter what,” said Kambosos. “If he didn’t have this war, he would be here. Tank Davis, let’s see. I hear he’d had a few issues with Mayweather promotional company with Tank and Floyd.
“He [Tank] might start thinking to himself, ‘Why can’t I get those big fights? Why can’t I get these opportunities? There are a lot of exciting fights to be made.
“The plan is to continue defending at home. When you conqueror, you want to defend, and that’s what I want to keep doing, bring them here.
“You have to remember that my last fight in Australia was five years ago. It was actually here in Melbourne. So, I’ve had to travel back and forth to hell and back.
“So, it’s time for them to get out of their comfort zone, and let’s see how they deal with it. It’s easier said than done—the same with Haney.
“‘Yeah, I’ll get on a flight no problem. I’ll come here.’ But when you get here after a 20+ hour flight, and you have to deal with things being outside of your comfort zone, a whole new environment, that’s when a fighter thrives.
“Let’s see, we’ll see. The most important thing is I’ve got one guy in front of me now, and that’s Devin Haney, and that’s my full focus,” said Kambosos.
