Undefeated unified lightweight champion Greek Australian boxer George Kambosos Jr is returning home to Australia this week.
According to sources close to Kambosos, he is scheduled to arrive in Sydney, Thursday morning 9.05am on a United Airlines flight at Terminal 1 of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport.
RESOURCE | ABOUT GEORGE KAMBOSOS Jnr
George Kambosos Jr. (born 14 June 1993) is an Australian professional boxer who has held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and The Ring lightweight titles since November 2021.
Kambosos was born in Sydney, Australia to parents of Greek descent.
His paternal grandparents moved from Sparta to Australia and Kambosos has the famous Spartan war cry "Never retreat, never surrender" tattooed on his body in homage to his heritage.
He began playing junior rugby league for the Gymea Gorillas at a young age[4] and was often bullied as a child for being overweight so his father enrolled him in boxing classes at 11 years of age to improve his fitness.
Kambosos quickly dropped the excess weight and was placed in the Cronulla Sharks development squad where he was coached by Ricky Stuart but found himself at a crossroad as a teenager when he was forced to choose between boxing and rugby league.[4] He elected to pursue the boxing pathway and began his fighting career by amassing 85 wins in 100 amateur fights before turning professional.
Kambosos made his professional boxing debut in May 2013, at the age of 19, when he faced Filipino fighter Jayson Mac Gura and was victorious via a second round technical knockout. In December 2016, he captured the WBA Oceania title by beating world number nine Brandon Ogilvie.
He then went on to face Qamil Balla in May 2017,[9] whom he defeated by unanimous decision in a ten-round fight.[10] Five months later, he knocked out Krai Setthaphon in the ninth round and won the WBA Oceania and IBF Pan Pacific titles in the lightweight division.[11] In June 2017, Kambosos was tabbed by Manny Pacquiao as his main sparring partner in preparation for the fight with Jeff Horn and has remained Pacquiao's main sparring partner for his fights after Horn as well. In April 2018, Kambosos signed a promotional contract with DiBella Entertainment. In May 2018, he made his debut in the US[15] and knocked out Jose Forero in just 1 minute and 48 seconds.[16] On 19 January 2019, Kambosos defeated Rey Perez at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs Adrien Broner via unanimous decision in his second fight on US soil.[17] On 7 June in Athens, Kambosos returned to his native land of Greece and knocked out Venezuelan 11–2 (9 KOs) Richard Pena in round six in front of the packed out Galatsi Olympic Hall. He called out former two division world champion José Pedraza after his victory.
On 9 January 2021, the IBF ordered undefeated unified lightweight champion Teófimo López to defend his titles against Kambosos, their number one contender and mandatory challenger.
The fight was initially set for 5 June 2021 at the Loan Depot Park in Miami, Florida, before being postponed multiple times, due to complications involving López contracting COVID-19, and disputes over the venue of the fight. The fight had gone to purse bids which was won by Triller with a winning bid of over US$6 million. However, on 6 October, it transpired that the IBF had found Triller in default of its contract obligation to stage the fight, and that its rights would be awarded to the second highest bidder, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom, and the fight was shown live exclusively on the streaming service DAZN.
Kambosos won the bout via split decision to become the new unified lightweight world champion. One judge had it 114–113 for López, while the other two judges scored the bout 115–112 and 115–111 in favour of Kambosos.
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