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George Kambosos vs. Devin Haney fight: Lightweight unification bout set for June in Australia

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After several twists and turns, WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney has won the George Kambosos sweepstakes. Haney will challenge unified lightweight champion Kambosos on June 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, according to reports from ESPN’s Mike Coppinger and BoxingScene’s Keith Idec. The fight will take place in primetime on June 4 in the United States and broadcast on ESPN.

Haney agreed to a two-fight deal with Top Rank and Lou DiBella as part of the contract. If Haney were to win in June, there would be a rematch between the two later this year in Australia as well, according to the reports.

The fight would crown the first undisputed champion in the lightweight division in the four-belt era.

For Haney, this is a chance to silence all doubters as to his legitimacy as a world champion. Haney was promoted from interim to full champion by the WBC after the sanctioning body promoted Vasiliy Lomachenko to “franchise champion” in 2019. The franchise champion designation was originally announced as a non-transferable designation, though Teofimo Lopez “won” the title from Lomachenko after defeating the Ukrainian in 2020. Kambosos then became the franchise champion with a win over Lopez last year.

This situation has caused confusion over whether Kambosos is the undisputed four-belt champion at lightweight or if Haney’s title, which he has successfully defended four times, creates enough dispute to label Kambosos as simply unified, rather than undisputed.

Lomachenko had reportedly secured the fight with Kambosos originally, but the ongoing conflict between his native Ukraine and Russia derailed those plans. Lomachenko will instead remain in Ukraine where he is among many prominent fighters who have taken up arms in defense of their country.

Kambosos is getting what he desired most out of the bout with Haney. After scoring a massive upset over Lopez to win the WBA, IBF and WBO world titles, Kambosos said that his first defense would come in his native Australia, making it clear that anyone seeking to claim the throne would have to come to him for a fight. in a major stadium. Marvel Stadium fits the bill with a capacity of well over 50,000.

Ryan Garcia was also reportedly in the running for Kambosos’ challenger but will instead face Emmanuel Tagoe on April 9.




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