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Lou DiBella considers a Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. rematch inevitable.
Kambosos’ first struggle of a brand new multi-bout co-promotional partnership with Bob Arum’s High Rank Inc. is scheduled for Saturday night time, when he’ll encounter England’s Maxi Hughes. Lopez has lengthy been promoted by High Rank and has come again from his shocking split-decision defeat to Kambosos in November 2021 by beating beforehand undefeated Scottish southpaw Josh Taylor to win the WBO junior welterweight title.
Australia’s Kambosos considers himself a 135-pound contender for the time being. DiBella, Kambosos’ longtime promoter, nonetheless realizes {that a} transfer as much as the junior welterweight restrict of 140 kilos to oppose Lopez will finally occur so long as these rivals hold successful.
“I believe it’s inevitable in some unspecified time in the future,” DiBella informed BoxingScene.com. “There was a whole lot of ardour going into that struggle and there was a whole lot of ardour popping out of that struggle. By some means, in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later I consider that struggle’s gonna occur once more. You already know that. Assuming Teofimo doesn’t retire one other two or 3 times, it’ll occur.
“However look, Teofimo is gonna be a type of guys that’s gonna have a tumultuous, fascinating and enjoyable profession. And I believe for George, Teofimo is at all times gonna be a struggle that’s there. That struggle was an excessive amount of enjoyable the primary time for it to not occur once more.”
Kambosos dropped Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) within the first spherical of their entertaining title struggle 19 months in the past, acquired up from a Tenth-round knockdown and gained their carefully contested 12-round, 135-pound championship match on two scorecards at Madison Sq. Backyard’s Hulu Theater in New York (115-112, 115-111, 113-114).
“It was a defining struggle for George,” DiBella stated. “And there have been a whole lot of heated phrases spoken on either side. I believe [the rematch is] a pure struggle in some unspecified time in the future. However George has acquired no difficulty with being at ’35 proper now. It’s his weight. Let’s see what occurs right here. Maxi Hughes was deliberately a high-risk, high-reward state of affairs coming off the 2 fights with Haney.”
Sydney’s Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs) misplaced back-to-back 12-round unanimous choices to Devin Haney (30-0, 15 KOs), the absolutely unified light-weight champion, in 2022. His 12-round struggle with Hughes (26-5-2, 5 KOs) can be contested for Hughes’ IBO light-weight title and can decide the quantity two contender within the IBF’s 135-pound rankings.
If Kambosos beats Hughes and Haney relinquishes his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles to struggle within the 140-pound division, Kambosos possible would struggle the IBF’s primary contender, Argentina’s Gustavo Lemos (28-0, 18 KOs), for an unclaimed IBF belt.
“I believe if George wins this struggle in good style he’s proper again in there within the high echelon of constructing an enormous struggle in boxing,” DiBella stated. “There’s Teofimo Lopez and there’s a whole lot of doable instructions at 135 and 140. And likewise, Devin Haney is within the state of affairs the place he has to decide that’s gonna open some issues up, presumably. We went with this take care of High Rank as a result of there are such a lot of large fights in that universe, so there are a lotta totally different prospects.”
Hughes has gained seven consecutive fights since he misplaced a 10-round unanimous resolution to British southpaw Liam Walsh (23-1, 15 KOs) in November 2019 in London. The unheralded Hughes has outpointed Irish southpaw Jono Carroll (24-2-1, 7 KOs) and England’s Child Galahad (28-3, 17 KOs) throughout his successful streak.
“I haven’t seen George this settled and collectively and prepared for a struggle in years,” DiBella stated. “That being stated, he’s misplaced two fights in a row and he’s combating a really powerful man to struggle. Maxi Hughes is an excellent boxer. … Have a look at who he beat and who he wasn’t alleged to beat. He’s a superb fighter. It’s a ballsy comeback struggle for George.”
ESPN will air Kambosos-Hughes as the primary occasion of a two-fight telecast set to start out at 10 p.m. EDT on Saturday night time from FireLake Area in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis (8-0, 6 KOs), a rising light-weight contender from Norfolk, Virginia, is about to battle Belgium’s Francesco Patera (28-3, 10 KOs) within the 10-round opener of ESPN’s doubleheader.
Keith Idec is a senior author/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He could be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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