Last weekend saw one of the biggest fights in Australian boxing history, with George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr defeating Teofimo Lopez to become the unified lightweight world champion.
A 13-1 underdog, many punters did not even have Kambosos coming out of the third round, let alone taking the belts, but the Australian pushed Lopez to the limits, including his first knockdown since his debut fight, and left the boxing world stunned with a split decision victory.
This was a serious shake up to the lightweight division, which boasts some of the most exciting fighters in the world, something which chairman of Matchroom boxing Eddie Hearn says is needed to make this division the most attractive to all fans.
Speaking to Mark Bouris on his podcast Straight Talk prior to Lopez v Kambosos, Hearn said the key to generating interest in the division was fighter consistency.
“The heavyweight division will always be the glamour division, it’ll always be the one that draws the casual fans, and casual fans are important because there’s boxing fans, and there’s that hardcore following, and then there’s the casual audience that come in for the big fights,” Hearn said.
“Generally, that audience will come in for the heavyweight fights, but right now when you look at the lightweight division, I do think that is the most attractive division in boxing, but only if they fight each other.
“People keep talking about the four kings, [Devin] Haney, [Teofimo] Lopez, [Vasiliy] Lomachenko and Gervonta Davis, but you're likening those four kings to the real four kings, which is [Marvin] Hagler, [Thomas] Hearns, [Sugar Ray] Leonard and [Roberto] Duran, so the lightweight guys, you can’t call them kings yet, they’re princes, because they’ve not fought each other.
“You imagine all of a sudden we got Teofimo against Devin Haney, or you got Gervonta Davis against Ryan Garcia, and they could fight each other two, three times, for the next three or four years and make fortunes.”
But there is now a fifth king, or emperor as he described himself in the post fight interview, who is looking to keep the division active. Kambosos has already expressed interest in fighting Devin Haney should he defeat Joseph Diaz this weekend, but he has made it clear any fighters looking to challenge him will need to meet him on his home turf.
“We’ve gotta sit down with the team now and figure out what makes best sense, we think Haney in Australia, 80,000 people, that would make best sense but he’s got to do a job obviously next week, we’ve already spoken as well last night, I wish him the best, a lot of mutual respect there but when it’s time to go it’s time to go,” Kambosos said.
“Whoever the fans want to see, let’s do it, but they’ve got to come see me in Australia. I’ve had to earn my stripes, and I’ve had to go into the backyards year after year, fight after fight.
“We deserve this as a whole nation, I’m happy to be the leader of the pack and bring all these belts back home down under.”
Hearn was also cognisant of the rise of Australian boxing as a whole, and noted the recent fights of Brock Jarvis and Demsey McKean as examples of what is to come from Down Under in the boxing world.
“It’s difficult for these guys because as big as Australian boxing is getting, everybody wants to come over and box globally, right, because they feel like Australia is a small pond for boxing and they want to spread their wings and become a global star,” Hearn said.
“Actually, Australian boxing is getting bigger and bigger and will be there soon, but you look at even Dempsey McKean, boxed at the weekend, he was so nervous, you’ve got Ebanie Bridges who came over, she’s made huge noise in the US, Skye Nicholson is here at the moment looking to potentially turn pro.”
With Haney set to face off against Diaz this weekend, it won’t be long until Ferocious has a new enemy in his sights, a fact that Hearn could not be more thrilled about.
