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If there was pork in the venue, it wasn’t in Devin Haney.
A twelve-round unanimous decision victory by Devin “The Dream” Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) in front of 40,000+ fans at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, was enough to secure the undisputed lightweight title for Haney. In a very technical battle, the elusive Haney’s jab was razor-sharp, and he mostly neutralized and annoyed Kambosos (and the fans). 116-112, 116-112, 118-110 were the final scores.
For the undisputed lightweight championship on Saturday night, Devin Haney was willing to fly to Australia and take against George Kambosos Jr in Melbourne, Australia. Haney made the right choice, as he went on to crush Kambosos over the course of 12 rounds to capture all four of the 135-pound world titles.
In a remarkable feat, Haney has become only the ninth boxer in any weight class to unify all four recognized belts, and the second youngest at the age of 23.
Kambosos’ offensive was effectively stifled by Haney’s jab from the start, and there was nothing in the way of drama in the fight. In response to Kambosos’s jab, Haney unleashed a barrage of lead left hooks and straight right punches, each of which deterred Kambosos from unleashing his right hand.
As a result, Haney was declared the victor by an official margin of victory of four votes: 116-112, 116-112, and 118-110.
The post-fight statement from Haney was, “I handicapped him at his best game,” Haney said after the fight. “He wanted to land the overhand right and the big left hook. I handicapped him. I was fighting both ways. When I would go to the left I would fight his right hand. When I would go to the right, I would fight his hook. He couldn’t land either one of them.
“After Kambosos’ unexpected victory over Teofimo Lopez to win the WBC franchise championship, Haney, who entered with the WBC championship, was not the man initially meant to face Kambosos. A rematch with former champion Vasiliy Lomachenko was supposed to be Kambosos’ initial opponent. Haney had a golden opportunity to address detractors who said his WBC title was bogus since Lomachenko was upgraded to franchise champion by the WBC after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when he backed out of the fight to remain in his own Ukraine.
As Kambosos frequently used trash talk and Haney had his father arrive on the night before the fight, Haney looked every bit a masterful boxer as he completely shut down the Aussie and marked up the Australian’s face with a steady diet of jabs from the outset. Despite this, the fight was still a close one, with Haney winning by unanimous decision.
The bout with Haney featured a rematch clause that indicated Haney would have to return to Australia if he won the first go-round, thus Kambosos will get the chance for vengeance.
After the fight, Kambosos made it plain that he was intending to use that clause.
At this point, Kambosos said: “I’m going to give him full respect, and we’ll do it again.” “I thought it was a close battle, but I’m not going to ruin his moment…. I’ll see him very soon,”
ISTHATPORKS TAKE:
Devin Haney deserves all the respect in the World for doing it the hard way and he endured. He absorbed all the verbal jabs from Kamboses. Absorbed all the verbal tirades from his countrymen. All the negative advances from his father and came out the victory. Now he’s the undisputed champion in the lightweight division. The only other belt that’s out there is Gervonte Davis. What a fight that would be. The winner in that fight depends on who comes in as “No Pork” on fight nite. So get your food years up fellas, we got our popcorn ready, the Boxing World can’t wait for that.
What’s your take on Haney’s No Pork performance?
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