Australian boxer George Kambosos (centre L) and Devin Haney of the US (centre R) face-off after weighing-in in Melbourne on June 4, 2022 ahead of his undisputed lightweight champion of the world title fight against Devin Haney of the US on June 5. (Photo by William WEST / AFP) (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)
Kambosos vs. Haney: George Out To Prove He’s No One Hit Wonder
2022 is red hot in the way of meaningful matchups and yet again boxing fans have plenty to sink their teeth in this weekend. George Kambosos takes on Devin Haney at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia live on ESPN. Let’s take a trip down under where we find Devin Haney trying to crack history becoming undisputed in the lightweight division. In his way is the current lineal champion or undisputed champ however you want to look at it George Kambosos. Of course, the WBC had to muck up things in 2020 creating a ‘Franchise’ designation for Vasiliy Lomachenko in order to keep a version of the belt and still fight Teofimo Lopez. Regardless of how you look at the situation, this Saturday barring a draw should clean up any debate or confusion.
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Much has been made about Devin Haney tagged as an e-mail title holder and a poor resume prior to his last 2 outings. Jorge Linares and Joseph Diaz Jr. served as true testing grounds and Devin passed but felt short of flyer colors. There’s no doubt that Haney showed his high-level talent in those two bouts. The problem especially versus Linares, Haney’s chin seemed to be a tad bit suspect. For me it was no big deal Devin was hurt by Jorge. To be clear holding when a boxer is hurt is a very smart thing to do but it was the excess holding for too long of period that had some folks question his ability to recover. To be fair Devin got buzzed again with Diaz and responded a whole lot better showing his growth.
Moving over to the hometown guy in George Kambosos full credit goes to him for taking on a huge challenge after shocking the world last November. Now George is trying to prove to the boxing world that he is not a one-hit-wonder. Kambosos has called himself the ‘emperor’ claiming he will be able to hold on to his lineal status and dominate 135 for years to come. Of late some of the lines have been corny along with his cheesy entrance to the press conference early this week but at least Kambosos is consistent. Sometimes getting into a fighter’s head can have a lasting effect carrying it with them the night of the fight. The most recent attack was calling Haney a snitch because he gave inside info to George heading into his fight with Teofimo Lopez.
Instead of re-watching Kambosos versus Teofimo, this boxing podcaster decided to re-watch George’s bout against Mickey Bey. Plenty of media members and fans may scoff at that but in reality, it’s a very good comp considering the fighting style of Devin Haney. Haney loves to establish his excellent jab before he begins to pot shot and land power punches. Bey isn’t quite as active with his jab, but similar enough Bey also fights at range and was able to pot shot landing lots of clean punches. Just as Haney will hope to accomplish, Bey definitely kept Kamboso’s punch output lower.
Kambosos at times throughout the fight was a bit hesitant to work his way inside but when he did he generally threw his punches in bunches landing quick combos mostly to the head. It will be interesting to see if George will be able to counter punch and parry punches then land the left hook on the quicker Haney. Look for George to throw uppercuts along with left hooks lead or behind the jab. Kambosos holds his hands too low which will allow Haney to turn his left jab into left hooks and land flush.
Will Haney be able to keep that same work rate he had versus both Linares and Diaz Jr.? Beyond fighting at range with a slight reach advantage Haney will need to be dedicated to the body attack something he did very well in his last two fights. One major difference from what Haney will most likely bring compared to Teofimo Lopez is pressure. Lopez showed little to no respect for Kambosos and it turned out to be his downfall. One can assume we won’t see Haney winging looping homerun shots trying to score a one-punch knockout in the early rounds. To his credit, Lopez did get back into the fight making it a tightly contested after 12 rounds. Let’s see if Kambosos can hurt Haney, if not it could be a long frustrating night.
The last thing that has to be mentioned is the judges with Haney being the visitor on the road. Even Manny Pacquiao couldn’t get a fair shake against Jeff Horn when the scorecards read 117-112 and the other two 115-113 when it was fairly clear Manny won the fight. Haney will need to outwork Kambosos and his defense will have to be on point in order to make it look as close as possible to a whitewashing. This hack-of-a-scribe does believe Devin Haney has what it takes to win this fight from the 7-5 to 9-3 range. To be fair Kambosos did get the nod in a competitive bout against Lopez so maybe I’m overdoing it by thinking Haney has to win at minimum 8 rounds.
My Official Prediction is Devin Haney via Split-Decision.
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Written by Chris Carlson Host/Producer of The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast Available at www.blogtalkradio.com/ropeadoperadio Follow on Twitter @RopeADopeRadio
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