George Kambosos Jr. offered Ryan Garcia some gratuitous advice Tuesday.
After reading comments from Garcia on social media that the unbeaten lightweight contender made about him on the most recent episode of Chris Mannix’s boxing podcast, Kambosos cautioned Garcia to remain focused on his upcoming opponent, Emmanuel Tagoe. Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs), of Victorville, California, and Ghana’s Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) are scheduled to meet April 9 in a main event DAZN will stream from Alamodome in San Antonio.
“Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners,” Kambosos stated in his Tweet. “You’ve done nothing in the sport except create a big social media presence so just keep working hard kid and focus on my boy Tagoe because he coming, you best believe that.”
Australia’s Kambosos, the undefeated, unified lightweight champion, and Tagoe have sparred many rounds with one another over the years, as they’re both managed by Peter Kahn.
Lou DiBella, Kambosos’ promoter, is negotiating with DAZN for Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) to battle unbeaten WBC world lightweight champion Devin Haney (27-0, 15 KOs), Garcia’s rival, on June 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. Kambosos’ original opponent, Vasiliy Lomachenko, withdrew from their fight over the weekend because the three-division champion from Ukraine remains committed to providing military assistance in his country’s war with Russia.
Sydney’s Kambosos, 28, upset Teofimo Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs) in his last fight to win the IBF, WBA, WBC franchise and WBO lightweight titles. Kambosos dropped Lopez in the first round, got off the canvas from a 10th-round knockdown and topped Lopez by split decision November 27 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York.
“That was a very weird fight,” Garcia told Mannix, according to the Tweet from ESPN Ringside to which Kambosos responded. “Don’t get me wrong, Kambosos, kudos to him for winning. I don’t think he’s as skillful as Teofimo. I still don’t think he’s as skillful. I think he caught Teofimo at the right time, that’s all. I really do believe that.”
Garcia, 23, commended Kambosos, but Kambosos obviously viewed his comments as backhanded compliments.
“The thing that I like about Kambosos, he might not be the best talent, but he probably works super hard,” Garcia said. “He beat talent when talent didn’t work hard. You can never knock a guy on that. I wish that he makes a lot of money in the sport and that he can take care of his family forever.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
