George Kambosos Jr. experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in consecutive fights.
The 29-year-old Aussie was the toast of boxing after his stunning split-decision upset of pound-for-pounder Teofimo Lopez last November in New York, which made him the undisputed lightweight champion and a star down under.
Six-plus months later, this past June, he was outclassed by Devin Haney and lost his belts in front of his disappointed home-country fans in Melbourne.
Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs) lost so much respect as a result of the latter fight that oddsmakers have made the talented Haney about an 8-1 favorite in the rematch Saturday at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne (ESPN), which is an average of multiple betting outlets. That’s a huge margin for someone who is one fight removed from being undisputed champion.
Kambosos insists he’s going to shock everyone.
“I know I’m the underdog,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I am back to familiar territory again. A lot of people have written me off, but I have shaken the world before and I can shake it again. … I have copped it from some unqualified idiots, but I haven’t lost my self-belief.”
He went on: “The kind of competitor I am, yes. he beat me in the first fight, but if someone beats me the first time playing chess or PlayStation, I will come back straight away. I will study how to beat them until I beat them. It drives me crazy not winning.”
Kambosos reportedly is so determined to turn the tables on Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) that he has moved out of his home, which he shares with his wife and children, and into the gym.
The Daily Telegraph reported that “he has a mattress, a TV, old boxing videos and a few books to keep him company.”
“I’ve been here four and a half weeks now,” Kambosos said about a week ago. “I’ve had a lot of peace and quiet. I have my bed upstairs and the gym is downstairs. I have a TV and I’m using it to study fights of Haney, myself and old-school fights. …
“I will visit my wife and kids some days, have dinner together as a family, then I go back to the gym, lonely and cold in the dark and ready for work the next day. I have cut down my people big time. The gym is so quiet now. I am not letting a lot of people in.”
Such sacrifices, he said, are imperative to get back to where he wants to be.
‘The biggest thing is I’ve had to be selfish,” he said. “Once this fight is done, I will let people back in, but right now, I have closed the door and been ‘Ferocious’ to get back to the top.
‘The Emperor who beat Lopez is dead. He is finished. He was only here a short time, but Ferocious is still alive.”
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