Via Huck Allen: Jeff Mayweather says he was surprised Devin Haney beat unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. with ease in Melbourne, Australia, last Saturday night.
Jeff thought that Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) would dominate him in skirmishes, but he did it with the previously undefeated Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs), a close victory. like every round of battle.
What makes Haney’s win even more special is that he defeated Kambosos in front of a massive Australian fanbase. Kambosos had fans cheering for him all the way, but that didn’t help him.
Some would argue that Kambosos and his career lacked urgency as things began to unravel for him early on. In the second part of the fight, there doesn’t seem to be any urgency or despair in the Kambosos corner.
In the 12th round, the Kambosos were finally ready, but it was too late to win. Kambosos needed a hit to take down Haney, but he didn’t have the strength to complete the task.
“I think Devin won almost every round. I could probably have spent a round on the Kambosos,” Jeff Mayweather told Mayweather channel. “He easily hit Kambosos which surprised me.
“Of course, I want him to win because he is the kid I coached as a kid. That war did not end at all. I tip my hat to Devin because that’s funny. What he told me made me stop.
“Basically when he said, ‘You have to inspire me,’ and I felt like hell when he said that. Not for any reason. Just the fact that he had to say it, even though it doesn’t really mean anything to me because I’m not against him.
“I had to accept that because I put something out there just because I thought it was too big for him to get through. So I had to accept. I took it like a man, and that’s what you have to do.
“The reason it hurts so much is because I don’t know if he ever knew that I wasn’t really against him,” Mayweather said of Haney. “It was put there, and that’s basically how he got there.
“I think out of all the people who said it shouldn’t have been me. I coached him when he was very young, and I said to his father, ‘This kid is going to be a world champion one day.’
“Of course, he lived up to everything I said he would and most of the others I trained with him. He lived up to all of that and perhaps more.
“I as a man even have to accept that I was wrong because I was wrong to put that out there in a way for people to understand it like I said, ‘Devin is going to lose.’ Contrary to me saying, ‘Devin will lose because of the circumstances, not because of his ability.’
“For now, the world is his right,” Jeff said of Haney’s abilities for future battles. “He is the king and has all the belts. So now everyone has to come to him.
“He should have done it a better way this time,” Jeff said of what the Kambosos had to do in the rematch to beat Haney. “I hope the same judges are there as well.
“It’s in your country, so how can you get justice? You’ve got 60,000 people screaming for you, and you still can’t win. I tip my hat to Devin. I don’t think I should apologize for being wrong because I was never really against him,” Jeff said.
