George Kambosos Jr. believed wholeheartedly that his reign atop the 135-pound division was simply in its infancy stages. Having dethroned former unified champion, Teofimo Lopez, at the tail end of 2021, the Australian native viewed Devin Haney as a somewhat innocuous challenge.
Yet, as Kambosos continued bloviating, Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) rolled his eyes incredulously. With the 23-year-old opting to ignore his man, he proudly boasted following his near shutout victory on June 5th, in Melbourne, Australia.
“I just seen right through it,” said Haney to BoxingScene.com. “The whole world wanted to tell him to stop the acting.”
While Haney would go on to render Kambosos ineffective on the offensive end, the Aussie product has ultimately decided to dust himself off and try again. With the 29-year-old enacting his immediate rematch clause, the two are officially set to swap fists once more on October 16th, at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
This time around, Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs) has abstained from his normal loquacious demeanor as he’s stayed out of the public eye. Admittedly, the former unified titlist openly confessed that heading into their initial showdown, he acted impetuously, something he believes he’s learned from.
Still, in spite of his reserved approach, Haney isn’t concerned in the slightest. Although Kambosos’s unbridled trash talk and audacious personality pushed Haney’s motivation through the roof, he reveals that the perpetual and derogatory words of Kambosos the first time around, aren’t needed in order to light a fire under him. Instead, with Haney desperate to hold onto his WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO world titles, he maintains that he has more than enough incentive to shut the door on his rivalry against Kambosos for good.
“I feel like this is a part of his strategy of going quiet. He doesn’t want to give me that extra motivation but the greats find motivation by any means necessary. I’m a go in there and beat him. Whether he’s talking or not talking.”
