By Robert Segal: Devin Haney says he expects former unified champion George Kambosos Jr. to be “coming back for vengeance” when the two meet in a rematch on October 15th at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
Undisputed lightweight champion Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) refuses to overlook the 29-year-old Kambosos Jr. (20-1, 10 KOs) despite dominating him in a conclusive 12 round unanimous decision last June in Melbourne.
Most boxing fans feel Kambosos has NO chance of winning the rematch because he was so badly outclassed in the first fight with Haney.
That’s why there are a lot of people that have no interest in seeing Haney and Kambosos fight a rematch because their previous fight wasn’t close enough to warrant a rematch.
Haney is pleased with what he’s done with his career up to this point, as he’s a four-belt champion at lightweight at the young age of 23.
He feels that the reason he’s accomplished what he has is that he wasn’t afraid to take chances with his career. Haney points out that a lot of fighters don’t take risks until their late 20s or 30s.
“I’m only 23 doing this. These guys wait for their whole career to finally take a chance or go against all odds where all odds are stacked against them in their 30s or late 20s,” said Devin Haney to Fighthype.
“I’m 23. That’s a pound-for-pound fighter who deserves to be on the list [with Ring Magazine]. Before I did this, I never said I deserved to be on the pound-for-pound list.
“You never heard me say nothing about it. Now, I feel like I’m very deserving, but it’s opinionated. You guys learned more about me than I learned about myself because my confidence was down. I knew that I had that in me.
“Just the type of person that I was, for me to do that, I had to believe in myself and believe in everything that I’m made of to even take that chance of doing it.
“I didn’t learn that much about myself because I knew I was the truth. I knew I was the guy. I just needed my shot to prove it. That’s why I’ve been calling out these top guys for so long because I’ve been trusting in my skills for a while now.
“I just never had the opportunity to show it and to prove it. I don’t want to look ahead because I don’t want to make the mistakes that Kambosos, and Teo that other guys did by looking too far ahead, thinking that one fight was all that it was.
“I know that he’s [Kambosos Jr] coming back hungry; I know he’s coming back with vengeance. So, I can’t look past him. This is the only fight I’m focused on now, and then when we’re victorious, we’ll see what’s next.
“But right now, My main focus is Kambosos. He is a live body, and he was the guy with the belts and the guy that many people picked to beat me before this.
“A lot of people were picking Kambosos to beat me. The oddsmakers had it really close, more like a 50-50 fight. Ya’ll keep that same energy,” said Haney.
