Written by Trรฉ Berry III | 11/29/2021
Unless you’ve been in some sort of food-induced coma for the weekend after Thanksgiving festivities (that reference is for those in the States), Australia’s
๐ฆ๐บGeorge “Ferocious” Kambosos (20-0-0, 10KO
) shook up the pot heavily with his monumental defeat over ๐ญ๐ณ๐บ๐ธTeofimo Lopez to win all of the highest ranked belts in the Lightweight division. The victory makes him the first Australian-born fighter to become a Lineal Champion since
๐ฆ๐บKostya Tszyu achieved that status back in 2001.
For people heavily intertwined in watching different type of fight cards region by region across the world, Kambosos isn’t a new face to that contingent of onlookers, however this match-up here brought new attention over to his career…and his performance here, as well as his victory has garnered crossover appeal as someone who is a bit of a mystery man to that pool of watchers.
To fill in the blanks, here is some interesting info. George was born in South Wales, Australia, and claims it as his nationality. The 28 year old also has Greek blood running through his veins, and he unapologetically wears it on his sleeve, as he is a firm believer of his
Spartan heritage, and living to carry out their legacy as a true warrior in his own capacity, and platform in which he chose to show it.
As a constant reminder of the weight he has to carry to honor his ancestors, he has a huge back tattoo across the shoulder-blades of two Spartan warriors shrouded in full combat gear, with with the words “
Never Retreat, Never Surrender” under one of the figures.
He also features a tattoo with scenes of a battlefield cast on the lower portion of the back. George once said in an older interview from 2019 that “To beat me…you will have to kill me” – a very strong statement to put out to the airwaves, but it coincides with the history that he tends to hang his hat on.
People talk all the time yes, and it only brings credence to the words when you actually prove them to be true…and Saturday it has to be noted that he stood strong and held his ground when Teofimo was running forward in the first round with no regard for George whatsoever, firing relentless haymakers, trying to emphatically knock him to a different orbit…but it was Kambosos who showed true gumption by standing in there, not losing his focus, and unleashing his own power that dropped the Hondurian-American, and changed the tide of the entire bout, forcing Lopez to think about what he does, with a bit of hesitancy entering the equation.
In the face of inherent danger, what do you do That’s a fundamental life question for everyone living to answer on their own accord, and dependent upon the way in which you answer it, will certainly give a future scope to your life, and will shape the fate in which you choose to accept. For those looking to achieve pinnacle outlooks in life, they are willing to stand there, endure whatever it is life throws at them, and find ways to function through it, sometimes resulting in the big win that we all covet.
Now, interestingly enough, Kambosos was also a sparring partner for recently retired, true all-time-great ๐ต๐ญManny Pacquiao, and sharing extensive time in the ring with a legend like that, who threw at nonstop unorthodox angles from a southpaw stance, will certainly prepare you for just about everything that can be thrown at you.
It was notable that Teofimo couldn’t land his counters the way he wanted to because George in large part through 12 rounds took himself out of position to be caught. Preparation takes you a long way, and it has shifted boxings climate. How? let’s take a look.
RESHUFFLING OF THE
DECK OF CARDS MEANS THAT EVERYONES PLANS CHANGE
As this fight finally came to fruition after delays, ๐ญ๐ณ๐บ๐ธTeofimo Lopez, a bigger Lightweight, stated that this would be his final fight at 135 lbs., and that he was going to vacate all of the titles and move up to the Junior-Welterweight division.
The fracture of titles would have caused a mess, and the Lightweight division would have had to start all over again from scratch, which is rough given how hard it is to get higher profile boxers this day and age to unify because of politics, their over-eagerness to protect their “O”, or their standing in the sport, and with 5 different titles to obtain.
Teo losing means that Junior-Welterweight King ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟJosh Taylor no longer has a reason to play footsie with Lopez, who loudly kept Josh’s name in his mouth, throwing unfounded, nonsensical slander his way, and potentially mucking up his future plans. With him going down, Taylor (after his fight with ๐ฌ๐งJack Catterall given he takes care of business) can put his full attention towards moving up a division to target the blockbuster match-up against elite Pound-4-Pound mainstay ๐บ๐ธTerence Crawford in a legacy defining fight.
P4P former Lightweight King ๐บ๐ฆVasiliy Lomachenko found himself engulfed in the saga of the “Teofimo games” with the antics perpetuated, as they acted completely standoffish about the prospects of entertaining a rematch, with unfulfilled promises from the Lopez camp, and them trying to skew certain narratives cast Loma’s way to try and desecrate his name while avoiding the rematch that the public had been asking for.
With Vasiliy’s ultimate “professional” goal in boxing becoming an Undisputed World Champion, the Kambosos win means two things…#1 being that all of the highest ranking belts stay consolidated and shrouded over one man…and #2, Loma can shift his focus off the constant gameplaying enacted by the other party, and concentrating his efforts on a possible Kambosos fight, who (George) appears to respect the sport at its core, and the practices that comes with his newfound status as a fighter that will be sought after.
The talented ๐บ๐ธDevin Haney, whether or not you support his claim as a WBC Lightweight claimant…he has expressed his desire for a fight to try and bring everything together with no questions left to be asked. Even top Lightweight world contender ๐บ๐ธRyan Garcia peaked his head out from his isolated doorway corridor to make public that he wants to target Kambosos when he returns from his hiatus centered around personal mental health concerns.
All of a sudden, now everybody wants to fight. The issue that will arise there is that Kambosos now being in the drivers seat of the division, he rightfully wants to take the belts back to Australia and defend it on his home soil the next time out, and being that both Haney and Garcia have a primadonna disposition about themselves (putting it nicely), they surely wouldn’t look to travel for the assignment, or the big opportunity.
๐บ๐ธGervonta “Tank” Davis hasn’t made anything public regarding his beliefs on what took place, but he’s a bit more focused, and typically on the quiet side when his own personal fight week is here on the horizon (something interesting to pay attention to regarding Haney’s outspoken position, while having a fight coming), but considering that Davis himself holds a secondary WBA title, he might feel emboldened to cast his rights in to the WBA to try to win the Super title…and everything else from George Kambosos Jnr.
All in all, this was the victory by George that was needed to potentially mobilize the Lightweight division…easily one of the most talented divisions in the entire sport, however most of its top talent has been playing around about the prospects of facing one another, without the actions supporting the words. George’s emergence appears to be the final lynchpin to get things going, for boxings sake, and the impact of his victory has crossed through 3 to 4 different divisions.