Kambosos: I'm Gonna Hit Haney Very Clean & He's Gonna Get Hurt With Every Shot I Land

George Kambosos Jr. just doesn’t see anything special in Devin Haney.

Kambosos considers the unbeaten Haney “a good fighter” and commended the WBC world lightweight champion for his willingness to travel halfway around the world for a fight in Kambosos’ home country. A confident Kambosos claims Haney has come quite a long way, however, to learn that he doesn’t have what it takes to knock off the undefeated, unified lightweight champion Sunday afternoon at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.

“Look, Devin is a good fighter,” Kambosos told BoxingScene.com. “I just don’t think he’s elite. He’s not an elite fighter and I just feel that everything I bring to the table is gonna be better than him. My speed, my movement, my sharpness, my explosive power, my defense. I feel that I’m gonna hit him very clean and he’s gonna be getting hurt with every shot that I land. So, I’m just really excited.”

Most sportsbooks have installed Haney as a slight favorite to beat Kambosos in the IBF/WBA/WBO champion’s first fight since he upset Teofimo Lopez six months ago.

Brooklyn’s Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs) was a much bigger favorite before Kambosos upset him by split decision November 27 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York. Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) is certain he’ll disprove skeptics again by beating Haney (27-0, 15 KOs), of Henderson, Nevada, in a 12-round, 135-pound title fight ESPN will televise live Saturday night in the United States.

“He will box,” Kambosos said. “He will move. And whatever he wants to bring to the fight, I’ll be fully prepared to execute my game plans. If he wants to get into a dogfight, no problem. If he wants to run and move, I’ll cut him off. If he wants to try to come forward, I’ll box his head off. So, I’m very excited for a great fight.”

Kambosos caught Lopez with a right hand that surprisingly sent Lopez to the canvas in the first round. The underdog began building an early lead thereafter, but Lopez rallied in the later rounds and dropped Kambosos during the 10th round.

A resilient Kambosos overcame that trouble to top Lopez on two scorecards (115-111, 115-112, 113-114).

Each of Kambosos’ past three fights have gone the distance. Haney has gone all 12 rounds in each of his past four fights.

It would therefore seem that Kambosos, 28, and Haney, 23, are likely to go the distance in attempting to become boxing’s eighth fully unified champion of the four-belt era. The Australian Boxing Commission has assigned an entirely neutral judging panel to their fight that consists of Hungary’s Zoltan Enyedi, Poland’s Pawel Kardyni and Canada’s Benoit Roussel.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.