This is Rummy’s Corner.
Coming up on June 4th from Melbourne, Australia, in a championship bout that will be televised
on ESPN, WBC lightweight champion Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney will square off against the
unified IBF/WBO/WBA super duper lightweight champion, George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos
Jr.
The winner of this contest will produce the first undisputed lightweight champion since
the great Pernell Whitaker in the early 1990s.
The winner will likewise become the first undisputed champion at 135 during the modern
4-belt era, and will be just the 8th boxer to become a 4-belt undisputed king in any
division.
Last November Kambosos scored a big time upset when he was awarded a 12 round split decision
victory against Teofimo Lopez to win the unified lightweight crown.
This was the first defense for Lopez after he had scored an upset win of his own against
Lomachenko.
But Kambosos set the tone with an early knockdown, and he was able to largely outbox and outmaneuver
Lopez for most of the contest, and despite suffering a knockdown himself in round 10,
at a point when Lopez had been building momentum, Kambosos persevered and he finished strong
in the championship rounds.
A week after Kambosos scored the upset against Lopez, Haney defended his WBC belt against
Jo Jo Diaz, winning by 12 round unanimous decision, which was his 4th defense of the
WBC title.
Diaz had some good spells in this one, and he never made it especially easy for Haney,
but by and large Haney was the one winning most of the rounds.
Hany was the one controlling the pace and flow, and whenever Diaz appeared to be coming
on stronger, Haney absorbed the incoming fire and maintained his composure.
The same thing could be said in his previous fight with Jorge Linares, where despite some
challenging moments along the way, Haney overcame and handled his business.
Both Haney and Kambosos are very talented boxers, and they both excel in a lot of the
same areas.
First and foremost, the jab is the key foundation for both, and each man has an excellent jab
that is used effectively both to navigate the range and to help create openings.
They are also both very good when it comes to discovering their range and timing their
attacks when they're at a proper distance.
They also both have a certain sneakiness with their respective offensive approach, where
stellar reflexes and good timing enable them both to land the type of shots that launch
from awkward angles that are difficult to anticipate.
On the flipside, however, they also both sometimes have a tendency of losing focus, which often
results in them getting hit with more clean shots than they should be at certain points
in a fight.
I am very fired-up for this fight, and have been since it was first announced.
Not only will we have a new undisputed lightweight champion crowned for the first time since
the great Sweet Pea.
But beyond that, I think we have two highly motivated boxers looking to make a statement,
and I therefore believe we are in for a fight where we will see these two lightweight champions
at their very best.
For Haney, he still has the label of being an email champion, because he never beat someone
inside the ring to win his title.
In fairness it is always disappointing when someone wins a title that wasn’t won by
beating someone in the ring, and a more famous example of this would be when Lennox Lewis
was first declared the WBC champion without having to fight for the belt after Riddick
Bowe tossed it in the trash.
Haney didn’t win the WBC belt in the ring, he was promoted from interim champion to the
real McCoy, so he never got the opportunity to face Lomachenko, who vacated the WBC belt
when the WBC literally invented a new belt right out of thin air!
They invented the so-called “franchise” belt, which was given to Lomachenko and originally
said to be a ceremonious honor where it couldn’t change hands in the ring.
So Lomachenko went on to face Lopez, and he lost.
But the real WBC champion was Devin Haney, and the WBC wound up making stuff up as they
went along, because that franchise belt itself changed hands from Lomachenko to Lopez to
Kambosos..
So Haney never truly got the chance to win his real WBC belt in the ring, and this is
his big opportunity to nail down the respect that earning the undisputed championship would
command.
Then you have Kambosos, who was not fighting at the top level until just a few fights back.
And in his biggest challenges to date, one after another, Kambosos rose to the moment
when he defeated Mickey Bey, Lee Selby, and of course Teofimo Lopez.
He won all of those fights on the road, and in my opinion Kambosos showed steady improvement
throughout the 3-fight run, which was itself largely defined by his championship heart
and determination.
No doubt that same drive will be present against Haney, where it will provide Kambosos the
opportunity to silence his critics who claim his victory against Lopez was a fluke.
I’m expecting both of these guys to come in extremely motivated, and honestly, the
way these two match up this one has potential draw candidate written all over it.
I’m expecting this one to be fiercely close and competitive, in what will almost assuredly
be a tactical chess match in a battle of jabs.
When I first heard about this match, my initial reaction was I thought Haney would outbox
Kambosos in a close one.
But I have since changed my mind, and the main reasons are, first I do believe that
fighting out in Australia is going to make Haney more prone to losing focus and making
a mistake, perhaps even to the point that it forces him into fighting a less passive
style where he best thrives.
And the other reason for me, rewatching their recent bouts, I think Kambosos is simply more
versatile fighting effectively when he ISN’T in his ideal range.
And I am fully expecting both of these guys to need to fight when they aren’t optimally
positioned, and it’s in these moments where I believe Kambosos will have just enough of
an edge to scrap by with a victory.
So for my official prediction, I’m taking George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr, let’s
call it a 12 round split decision to keep with the current trend.
So I’m taking Kambosos, but what the hell do I know?
I ain’t exactly Quasimodo over here.
But whatever happens, I am extremely fired-up for this one, and may the best man win on
that night.
Best of luck to both champions!
So who do you think will win?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Thanks for watching everyone, I hope you enjoyed, and have a wonderful night!
This is Rummy’s Corner.
You know, Quasimodo predicted all of this.