George Kambosos vs. Devin Haney on June 4th in Melbourne, Australia

By Boxing News - 05/29/2022 - Comments

By Jim Calfa: George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney meet next Saturday, June 4th for the undisputed lightweight championship on ESPN+ and ESPN in Melbourne, Australia. The start time for the event is 9:00 p.m. ET.

It’s an interesting fight in which the winner will hold all four titles, and in theory, have the bragging rights to say they’re the best fighter in the lightweight division.

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Unfortunately, the Kambosos vs. Haney winner won’t solve who the best fighter is by a long shot, as Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Ryan Garcia would still need to be beaten to prove a true #1.

However, the promoter for Saturday’s undisputed winner can market their fighter as the top guy to the casual boxing fans, who might buy into it.

If the Australian Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) wins on Saturday, he’s still going to be invisible to a lot of U.S boxing fans because he hasn’t had the visibility in the States to make him a household name.

If Kambosos beats the young 23-year-old Haney, it won’t be a big enough win to give him a bump up in popularity for American fans.

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For Kambosos to be seen as a real champion and not a four-belt paper champ, he’ll need to run the gauntlet by beating Tank, Lomachenko & Ryan Garcia.

“It’s very similar,” said Haney to Gareth A. Davies about how he is going to Melbourne, Australia to fight a native Kambosos on his home turf is similar to how he used to fight in Tijuana, Mexico at age 17 against local fighters that were much older.

“We got to go in, we got to win. The crowd may be against me, but by the end of it, they’ll be rooting for me, they’ll be cheering for me. That’s all that matters.

“I’m not going into it with anything bad because these are just fans. The best man will win on that night, and it will be me. They might boo me at first, but by the end of the fight, they’ll be cheering me on.

“It’s by far the biggest fight [of my career],” Haney continued about his undisputed lightweight clash with Kambosos being the biggest one of his seven-year professional career.

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“This is the biggest fight of the lightweight division. It’s for everything, it’s for all the marbles, all the belts. This is the Super Bowl of the lightweight division.

“Yeah, this is definitely my biggest fight by far, and this will be my best fight. This will be my fight where I can showcase the most. 100%, I believe styles make fights, and his style matches up perfectly with mine and I will show it.

“It’s about winning at this point. I want to win more than anything,” said Haney when asked if he can get a stoppage to make a statement or if it is more important to just win the belts. “As long as it comes, that’s all that matters,” said Haney.

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