The undisputed lightweight world boxing champion since 2019, Devin Haney is set to face the former world champion, George Kambosos Jr. in a world title rematch on Sunday, October 16. The championship bout will take place at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
After defeating the Greek-Australian boxer in June 2022, the 23-year-old Haney became the second youngest and the ninth fighter to unify the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring titles in any weight class.
The unbeaten American boxer has asserted to send the 29-year-old boxer, "into retirement". Haney defeated the former world champion for the first time in 21 fights by unanimous decision in their first meeting at Marvel Stadium with one judge scoring the fight 118-110 and the other two 116-112.
Kambosos blamed his former trainer Javiel Centeno for the defeat and also criticized the refereeing. The defending champion insulted the Sydney-based fighter on Friday and said, "They keep making up excuses. Now it is the coach. Before it was the referee. (They said) I was holding. They make every excuse in the book. Why did you fire your whole team if that was the case? If truly you feel like I was holding too much, why would you fire your whole team?"
Talking about his preparation ahead of the rematch, Kambosos said, "I am zoned in on this moment. Nothing will break my focus. Nothing will break my tunnel vision. I am not interested in any of that now. We have been left alone for this camp. There have been no distractions. I am looking forward to doing all my talking on Sunday."
Meanwhile, an ESPN analyst snubbed Haney from the top 10 pound-for-pound boxers in the world and the boxer responded, "At the end of the day, I’m a solid, all-round fighter, the youngest undisputed champion in boxing, so I should definitely be on the list. But it is what it is. My main focus right now is facing George Kambosos and after that we can talk about that, we can talk about the (rankings)."
Haney is undefeated in his 28 fights with 15 knockout victories while Kambosos lost his first of the 21 fights against the American after registering 10 knockout wins in his boxing career.
