Australian George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr 19-0 (10) is brimming with confidence ahead of his long overdue world title shot against undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo ‘The Takeover’ Lopez 16-0 (12) at the Hulu Theater at Madison Sqaure Garden in New York next Saturday night.
The fight was originally scheduled to take place in June before being repeatedly rescheduled by promoter Triller, who had won the original purse bid.
The social media network eventually relinquished their right to promote the bout, with the second-highest bidder Matchroom Boxing stepping in to promote the fight.
Despite the delays the 28-year-old Kambosos has remained extremely confident of dethroning the WBC Franchise, WBA, IBF and WBO champion Lopez.
“My speed and the way I move and explosive power and shots that I land and throw and the punches in bunches and the combination punches that I have in my artillery, and my stamina and my fitness is just too much for this kid,” Kambosos told AAP.
“He’s been saying he’ll knock me out first round. Before he got COVID on June 19, he said he was going to knock me out within three, so what’s changed?
“His fitness and his stamina is nowhere near what it has to be so he’s hoping and he’s praying that it’s one round because it has to be.
“What’s he going to do for the next 11 when he doesn’t get that first-round knockout?
“If that’s his only game plan, then he’s in big, big trouble.
“I’m fully prepared. I’m ready for 12 rounds. I’m old school so, if they want, we can do 15 rounds like the greats of our sport.”
Lopez became the undisputed champion in his last bout 13 months ago when he defeated Vaisiliy Lomachenko 15-2 (11) by unanimous decision.
Kambosos became the IBF mandatory contender with his split deicision victory over former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby 28-3 (9), also in October last year.
The one knock on Kambosos from certain quarters is that he doesn’t have a big enough punch to dissuade the 24-year-old Lopez.
But the Sydneysider says his high punch output is more than enough to get the job done.
“Look, volume punching in boxing is if you throw a lot of punches and I do that,” Kambosos said.
“I’ve got a big motor. Throughout the 12 rounds, I keep going.
“Every round I keep getting better and better and keep throwing more punches.
“But my defence is so underrated in the boxing world.
“I’m super sharp and my reflexes, my head movement, my footwork in and out, they’re going to find out the hard way – Lopez is.
“They don’t believe in my defence and think this is going to be an easy fight for him, but they’re going to find out the hard way next week.”
