George Kambosos Jr vs Devin Haney, billed as ''Undisputed'', was a

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

unification

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse bid, purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regula ...

match contested between WBA (Super),

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

, and '' The Ring'' champion, George Kambosos Jr, and

WBC WBC may stand for: Business *Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS *Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company *Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...

champion, Devin Haney. The bout took place on 5 June 2022, at

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. Haney defeated Kambosos via

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

to become the first undisputed lightweight champion since Pernell Whitaker in 1990, and the first in the four-belt era.

Background

After defeating

Vasiliy Lomachenko Vasyl Anatoliyovych Lomachenko ( uk, Василь Анатолійович Ломаченко, ; also spelled Vasiliy; born 17 February 1988) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held multiple triple champion#Boxing, world championships in ...

in October 2020,

Teófimo López Teófimo Andrés López Rivera (born July 30, 1997) is an American professional boxer. He is a former unified lightweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 2019 to November 2021, and the WBA (Super), WBO, and '' The Ring'' magazi ...

claimed to have become the undisputed champion in the lightweight division. However, many boxing purists rejected López's claim, believing Devin Haney had the legitimate WBC lightweight title, meaning that there was still not an undisputed lightweight champion. Haney called out López for a bout to end the debate, which did not materialise. Haney was set to be ordered to face fellow American lightweight Ryan Garcia, which Garcia dismissed, instead advocating for a bout with

Gervonta Davis Gervonta Davis ( ; born November 7, 1994) is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the WBA (Regular) lightweight title since 2019; the IBF super featherweight title in 2017; ...

. Haney then agreed to a title defence against Jorge Linares, winning by

. Meanwhile, López was forced to a mandatory defence against Australian George Kambosos Jr, which was originally set for 5 June in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, before being moved to 19 June. López then tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and after multiple setbacks, the fight was finally set for 27 November in

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In one of the biggest upsets of 2021, Kambosos Jr defeated López via split decision, winning the unified lightweight titles in the process. On 15 October, Ryan Garcia was forced to pull out of his bout with

Joseph Diaz Joseph "JoJo" Pedroza Diaz Jr. (born November 23, 1992) is an American professional boxer who held the WBC interim lightweight title from July 2021 to December 2021. He also held the IBF super featherweight title from 2020 to February 2021 and ...

, and Devin Haney agreed to step in and face Diaz on 5 December in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, with Haney winning by unanimous decision. Haney then called out Kambosos Jr, who had defeated López the week before, to determine an undisputed lightweight champion. However, there was another man in the lightweight division looking for Kambosos Jr's titles:

, who defeated

Richard Commey Richard Oblitey Commey (born 10 March 1987) is a Ghanaian professional boxer who held the IBF lightweight title in 2019. He previously held multiple regional lightweight titles including; the Ghanaian title in 2011; the ABU title in 2013; and the ...

on 11 December in New York. A potential bout with Lomachenko seemed more likely for Kambosos Jr, as a two-fight deal was agreed without any problems on 15 February 2022. However, on 24 February, Russia invaded Lomachenko's country of Ukraine, with Lomachenko heading over to Ukraine in order to defend his country, as well as unified

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

champion and fellow Ukrainian, Oleksandr Usyk. On 20 March, Lomachenko was given permission to leave Ukraine in order to start training for a potential bout with Kambosos Jr. However, Lomachenko declined, opting to stay and fight for his country. This resulted in Kambosos Jr–Haney talks advancing, and on 27 March, the pair struck a deal, which included Haney signing a two-fight deal with Top Rank and Lou DiBella to fight exclusively on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

platforms. The deal includes a rematch clause if Haney wins, with the rematch also taking place in Australia. Even if Haney lost, his next bout afterward would be co-promoted by Top Rank and DiBella.

Fight card

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kambosos Jr., Haney 2022 in Australian sport 2022 in boxing June 2022 sports events in Australia 2020s in Melbourne Boxing matches in Australia Kambosos Jr. Sports competitions in Melbourne Lightweight championship matches

Background

Fight card

See also

References