Boxing: George Kambosos vs Devin Haney preview, latest news
Already lauded as Australian boxing’s financial kingpin, George Kambosos will make history and bury forever the big pay days of Australia’s previous boxing greats when he steps into the ring.
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George Kambosos has sealed the biggest pay day in Australian boxing history with the Sydney slugger to earn more than $10 million for Sunday’s world-title blockbuster against Devin Haney.
News Corp can reveal Kambosos will make financial history at Marvel Stadium, pocketing an eight-figure sum that leaves the pay days of Australia’s greatest boxers Jeff Fenech, Kostya Tszyu, Anthony Mundine, Danny Green and Jeff Horn in the shade.
Kambosos received $2.1 million following his epic boilover of Teofimo Lopez last November, but he will celebrate a five-fold increase against Haney — regardless of the result of their unification bout before 50,000 fans in Melbourne.
Watch one of the biggest boxing fights ever in Australia: George Kambosos Jr. vs Devin Haney, Sun 5 June with Main Event on Kayo Sports. No Kayo subscription needed to order. ORDER NOW >
It is understood Mundine claimed $3 million for the final bout of his trilogy with Green in 2017. Horn earned $2 million for his showdown with Terence Crawford in 2018, while it is estimated Tszyu made more than $1 million for his clobbering of Zab Judah in 2001, a significant sum considering their unification bout was two decades ago.
But Kambosos has soared into a new fiscal stratosphere.
When he walks into the ring against Haney, he will pocket around $US7 million ($9.65m), before receiving an additional share of pay-per-view sales via Foxtel’s Main Event arm, tipped to exceed 100,000 subscribers.
The $10 million bonanza caps the ultimate rise to super-stardom for Kambosos, whose first professional pay day was $800 when he sold tickets to his debut fight at Sydney’s Croatian Club nine years ago.
Haney’s legendary US promoter Bob Arum, who turned 90 last December, confirmed Kambosos is now Australian boxing’s financial kingpin.
“George has secured the biggest pay day for an Australian in boxing history, definitely,” Arum said.
“George will make around $6-7 million US dollars from this deal, which is about $9-10 million Aussie, and then he will get a share of the Australian pay-per-view market.
“There will be huge pay-per-view sales in homes and pubs around Australia.
“Kostya Tszyu fought under me a couple of times, but he was never paid anything close to this.
“In those days, a champion made about $US250,000 from a big fight, it was a different pay scale back then.
“Guys like Jeff Fenech and Kostya were fighting in a different era when the pay wasn’t as big, so I would have to say Kambosos will make more money than any Australian fighter has ever made in one fight.
“Kostya may have made $1 million for a fight, but there is no question George’s pay day is something no Australian boxer has seen.”
Arum estimates the Kambosos-Haney fight will be watched by at least five million viewers in America, which would equal the Jeff Horn-Manny Pacquiao epic at Suncorp Stadium five years ago.
The four-belt lightweight unification belt will be shown live in the US on ESPN.
Kambosos’ promoter Lou DiBella lauded the courage of Kambosos and Haney.
“There’s an expression in boxing: ‘Do you want to smoke or not’ and these two guys chose to smoke,” he said.
“A lot of fighters just want easy pay days but these two guys are fighting for legacy, not only for money.
“To watch two young men grab for the gold ring is wonderful to see.
“This will be the biggest worldwide audience they have ever fought before. It will go around the world, more people will watch this fight than any of George and Devin’s fights in the past.”
Kambosos’ father and manager Jim said his son’s life-changing pay day against Lopez has not made him complacent.
“George has done it tough financially for a long time,” he said.
“The truth is we could have stayed in Australia and made more money, but we went to the US to start from the bottom again.
“It was really tough, but we found a way all the time to get by from fight to fight to fight.
“George has had some good pay days lately, but the money is not his driving factor, it’s all about the legacy.
“He is as hungry as ever. He wants the last piece in the puzzle and that’s Haney’s WBC belt. He will get it on Sunday.”
BOXING BOSSES BAN HANEY’S CUNNING RADIO PLAN
Devin Haney has suffered another setback with boxing authorities banning the American from being coached by his stranded father via an earpiece in Sunday’s world-title showdown with George Kambosos at Marvel Stadium.
Haney’s trainer and dad Bill has had a visa application rejected by the Australian government due to a 30-year-old drug conviction, prompting the American’s camp to hatch an unprecedented plan for father and son to talk tactics during the fight.
Haney senior was slated to sit in an American studio 15,000km away watching a live feed of the fight.
He was due to be hooked-up to his son’s stand-in trainer Yoel Judah, with Devin Haney to receive instructions from his father using an earpiece in between rounds.
Haney’s promoter Bob Arum told News Corp he had never seen such a novel technological coaching tactic in his near 60-year tenure in the fight game.
But News Corp understands Haney’s grand plan has collapsed.
There is speculation a furious Kambosos privately intervened, but ‘Ferocious’ insists boxing bosses have cut off the lines of communication between ‘The Dream’ and his dad in a second blow for Haney.
“The boxing commission said no to that idea,” Kambosos said.
“Look, I follow the rules, I go by the rules and the commission said no (to Bill Haney advising his son), so that’s the end of the story.
“The sanctioning body has said, ‘No earpieces’.
“Having an earpiece has never been done before in boxing history, so I support that, it’s a clear no in my eyes.
“It’s unfortunate for him, but it is what it is.
“It’s not my problem, I am focused on my team ... I have my father in my corner.”
Kambosos and Haney ramped-up their preparations with an open training session in Melbourne’s Federation Square on Thursday.
Haney was roundly jeered when he entered the ring, while Kambosos received a hero’s welcome, complete with Greek dancers and Mediterranean music in a nod to his Hellenic ancestry.
When the hoopla dies down and the pair eyeball each other in the ring at Marvel, Kambosos is adamant he will make history by becoming the first man to unify the lightweight division in the 18-year four-belt era.
“I do everything better,” he said.
“He doesn’t have my heart. There will be 45,000 fans and possibly more all in my corner, every bit of Marvel will be behind me and Devin Haney will feel it as well.
“He is a good boxer, but I am an elite boxer. He has so many holes and I will land my shots clean and with bad intentions with every shot I land.”
Haney scoffed at suggestions he will crash to his first career defeat without his talismanic father’s training wisdom.
“If I felt like it was a factor, then I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
“I have come here Down Under, as you guys would say, without my dad, without my head coach, and I will show you that it’s possible (to win without him) on Sunday.
“Devin Haney will be victorious ... I will be the youngest undisputed champion of the four-belt era.”
SNITCH ‘B****’ HANEY SLAMMED BY KAMBOSOS VICTIM
Former lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez has slammed Devin Haney as a “punk-ass little bitch” as he backed George Kambosos to make history in Sunday’s unification bout at Marvel Stadium.
Kambosos shocked the boxing world last November when he stunned raging favourite Lopez on foreign soil to claim the WBA, IBF and WBO belts from an American rated one of the most talented fighters of his generation.
If he beats Haney (27-0, 15KO), who holds the WBC strap, Kambosos (20-0, 10KO) will become just the eighth man to unify a division since the birth of the four-belt era in 2004.
Kambosos’ split-decision victory over Lopez (115-112, 115-111 and 113-114) was laced with controversy after ‘The Takeover’ claimed he was dudded by judges in a gargantuan boilover at Madison Square Garden.
Watch one of the biggest boxing fights ever in Australia: George Kambosos Jr. vs Devin Haney, Sun 5 June with Main Event on Kayo Sports. No Kayo subscription needed to order. ORDER NOW >
But six months on from the shock defeat that ended his tenure in the lightweight division, Lopez said he holds no grudges towards Kambosos and believes the Australian can go to another level to inflict Haney’s first defeat.
“Kambosos definitely has a good chance to beat Devin Haney,” Lopez said from New York.
“This is a great match-up. The fans are the big winners. It will be a great occasion for boxing in Australia.
“It’s a 50-50 match-up. The winner will be the guy that has prepared the best, but when you fight the best, you become the best and that’s what happened to Kambosos.
“Kambosos fought me, so he has gotten better. It always happens. Whoever fights me has only improved for their next fight.
“Kambosos will never face anybody as good as me, trust me, so if he knows that, he will win against Haney convincingly ... but that’s on him to do the job.”
Kambosos dropped a bombshell on Haney on Monday when he accused ‘The Dream’ of being a “rat” by leaking information about Lopez to the Australian before their world-title bout last year.
Told of Kambosos’ claims, the 24-year-old Lopez expressed dismay at being backstabbed by Haney - before unloading on his countryman.
“Oh wow. I wasn’t aware of that,” Lopez said.
“To be honest, I’m not surprised he would do that.
“Haney is a punk-ass little bitch, a lot of guys in boxing are.
“Some guys do things differently. That’s not me. I don’t operate that way. I’m straight up.”
There is a view Kambosos got lucky by catching Lopez on a bad day. The American revealed he went into the fight with a serious throat injury, believed to be linked to an extreme weight-loss regime.
“The truth is I was very sick that day, so I don’t really count that loss to Kambosos as a loss,” he said.
“I honestly see it as a no-contest. I don’t consider it a loss or anything, I consider it just something that dramatically happened.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Kambosos. He is a decorated fighter and he showed great heart that day, but he got me on a bad night and good luck to him.
“I wasn’t surprised by his game plan at all. I knew what I was getting myself into. One thing people need to know is how well I study my opponents.
“I didn’t overlook Kambosos, but I had major complications with my health going into that fight. I decided to continue with the fight, privately knowing what was going on.
“I had a tear in my oesophagus. I was having air-flow issues during the fight. I could feel something wrong running to my heart and my breathing.
“I was fighting Kambosos with asthma and bronchitis and early stages of pneumonia, but everything happens for a reason.
“I made a mistake really, but I have to accept that and move forward.”
Asked what Kambosos must do to beat Haney, Lopez said: “The key for Kambosos is to stay productive, sticking his jab and closing the gap range with Haney.
“He has to figure out how to cut corners and move his head because Haney is good at throwing a lot of jabs and moving.
“I have no regrets. I wish George and Devin a great fight, a great night and may the best man win.”
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