Former WBA, WBO and IBF lightweight champion George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr 20-2 (10) is still chasing the big fights after losing back-to-back unanimous decisions to Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney 29-0 (15) in 2022.
In their first fight at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium in Australia in June, Kambosos was clearly outboxed by the clever American, losing his three world titles to the WBC champion by scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 116-112.
In their immediate rematch at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne four months later, Kambosos was again on the wrong end of the cards losing by scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 118-110.
Despite the scorecards indicating the first fight was the closer of the two, Kambosos believes he performed better in the second bout.
The 29-year-old Sydneysider has largely been out of the spotlight as he looks to rebuild and add new wrinkles to his game ahead of another run at world championship honours.
“The hunger is still there to be the best that I can be. There were a lot of options for me to have easy fights, but as a true warrior, I took the hard fight against Devin Haney,” Kambosos said to FightHype.
“I got better in the second fight, regardless of what people say. I showed more. I tried different things, but he got better as well. He became a sharper fighter, a more precise fighter.
“I feel like I learned more from those two fights than any win I had in my career. I’m very excited about 2023 because doing 24 rounds with Haney alone and continuing to be a better fighter and a true warrior. Defeat isn’t the worst thing in the world.”
One boxer Kambosos is keeping a close eye on is Ukrainian southpaw Vasiliy Lomachenko 17-2 (11). The former three-weight world champion was already in the Australian’s sights last year but with the war against Russia raging in his homeland, he chose to put service to his country ahead of sport.
Lomachenko has since returned to the ring, logging a 12-round points win over Jermaine Ortiz in New York last October. He is now expected to face Haney on May 20 at a venue to be determined.
“I’ve learned a lot. Haney is a very [big] lightweight. As Lomachenko said, he’s a heavyweight,” said Kambosos.
“I’m very hungry to continue to achieve more and I know I will be a two-time world champion. No disrespect to Lomachenko, but regardless of what’s going to happen in that fight [with Haney], I’d still want to grace the ring with Lomachenko, regardless of how much older he’s getting or how he’s looking.
“It’s a fight that was nearly done when I had all the belts. So I’d love to do that fight and maybe do a big stadium fight here in Australia.”
