Via Jim Calfa: George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney meet next Saturday, June 4 for the undisputed lightweight championship on ESPN+ and ESPN in Melbourne, Australia. Event start time is 9:00 p.m. ET.
It’s an interesting fight, where the winner will hold all four titles, and in theory have bragging rights to say they’re the best boxer in the lightweight.
Unfortunately, the winner of Kambosos vs. Haney will not settle on who is the best boxer with a long shot, as Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Vasyl Lomachenko and Ryan Garcia still need to be beaten to prove the true No.
However, the promoter of Saturday’s undisputed winner can market their boxer as a top to casual boxing fans who can afford it.
If Australian Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) wins on Saturday, he will remain invisible to a lot of US boxing fans because of his inability to show up in the US to make him. It became a household name.
If the Kambosos beat 23-year-old Haney, it won’t be a big enough victory to make him popular with American fans.
For Kambosos to be considered a true champion rather than a four-belt paper champion, he will need to break through the gauntlet by defeating Tank, Lomachenko, and Ryan Garcia.
“It’s very similar,” Haney said to Gareth A. Davies about him going to Melbourne, Australia to fight a native Kambosos on his home turf the same way he fought in Tijuana, Mexico at the age of 17 against much older local fighters.
“We have to go in, we have to win. The crowd may be against me, but in the end, they will be for me, they will be cheering for me. That’s all that matters.
“I don’t go into it with anything bad because these are just the fans. The best man will win that night, and it will be me. They might boo me at first, but by the end of the game, they’ll be cheering me on.
“By far, it was the biggest war [of my career]“Haney continued about his undisputed lightweight clash with the Kambosos as the biggest match of his seven-year professional career.
“This is the biggest battle of the light division. It’s for everything, it’s for all the marbles, all the belts. This is the Super Bowl of lightweight.
“Yeah, this is definitely my biggest fight to date, and this is going to be my best fight. This will be my fight where I can show the most. 100%, I believe his style of making fights and his style perfectly suits my style and I will show it.
“It’s about winning at the moment. I want to win more than anything,” Haney said when asked if he could stop to make a statement or, more importantly, just win the belts. “As long as it comes, that’s all that matters,” Haney said.
