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George Kambosos Jr., the Unified Lightweight Champion of the world, recently divulged his early boxing journey.
Kambosos Jr. never tried boxing until a conversation with his father changed everything. George Kambosos Jr. and Sr. were discussing ways that Jr. could lose weight to help him get in better shape to play Rugby League. 'Ferocious' was also the victim of bullying and wanted to face that aspect of his life.
Kambosos Sr. said to his son:
“Do you like the 'Rocky' films? Always mucking around throwing punches.”
From there, Kambosos Jr. went down the path of boxing.
George Kambosos Jr. said:
“I remember going up the stairs, walking up to that gym. The smell alone of that old school gym. The leather bags the blood on the gloves. I didn’t have my own pair I had to borrow some there. Then I'm getting in the ring with some kid who's had a bit of experience. He is throwing punches and I'm doing my best to do whatever I could after learning 30 minutes of it on that first day. It would drive a lot of kids out of there, I said 'No chance, I'm not going to do this.' Me? I was enjoying the whole process of it day by day as scary as it was, I fell in love with the sport and knew that one day I would get to the top."
Watch the full interview here:
George Kambosos Jr. has his own Hollywood story to becoming Unified Champion of the world
George Kambosos Jr. is the unified WBA, IBF, WBO, and The Ring Lightweight Champion of the world. Kambosos would shock the world in a bout against Teofimo Lopez to gain all but one (the WBC) championship of the world.
Watch Kambosos defy all odds to defeat Teofimo Lopez:
Kambosos earned his title shot by becoming an IBF mandatory challenger. The Australian’s road to becoming a mandatory challenger was in itself not an easy one. He earned his mandatory status through a hard contested spit decision victory over Lee Selby.
It was then set, Teofimo Lopez would have his first defense of his Unified Lightweight Titles against massive underdog Kambosos Jr.
It did not go as planned. Lopez tested positive for COVID, leaving the bout to be postponed. The fight would then have eight different date changes. It seemed unlikely that the bout would ever go ahead.
Numerous legal threats ensued but, on November 27, 2021 the bout took place. Kambosos Jr. defeated Lopez via split decision to become the Unified Lightweight Champion of the world.
Kambosos can win the only belt that elludes him by defeating Devin Haney. The pair are set to fight on the 5th of June.
