The BN Preview: Haney should return to Australia to combat Kambosos a second time

REMATCHES in boxing are inclined to occur for all method of causes, with some extra official and worthy than others. There’ll, for starters, be the rematch that’s triggered by the shut nature of a primary combat, or in some instances the controversial nature of a primary combat. There can even be the rematch as reward for the motion followers witnessed between two fighters in combat primary. Then there will likely be rematches contracted or, in different phrases, agreed earlier than we’ve got even had an opportunity to see what occurs when the 2 boxers share a hoop. 

The final of these causes normally comes into play when a champion has been dethroned. It’s at that time they’ll have determined, whatever the manner wherein they have been dethroned, that dented pleasure is just too painful a sense to not at the very least attempt to regain all they’ve misplaced. It’s at that time a rematch clause is activated and a rematch, whether or not it’s required or not, takes place.

This, on the face of it, would seem the inspiration for lightweights Devin Haney and George Kambosos renewing acquaintances this Sunday (October 16) in Melbourne, Australia, simply 4 months after their first encounter. For it may be for no different motive. Their first combat, in any case, was neither shut nor notably thrilling and, furthermore, no one who watched the primary combat can have been calling to see a repeat of it anytime quickly.

It’s merely due to a contractual obligation, due to this fact, that Kambosos, the previous light-weight champion whose reign was temporary, is granted a second go at beating Haney, 28-0 (15), this weekend in his residence nation. For him, and solely him, the combat makes full sense and is one he should take, if simply to revive his pleasure. Additionally it is a combat he can have by now satisfied himself he can win, regardless of his lack of ability to do a lot with Haney first time round, and one he has instructed himself he wants with a view to proper all of the issues he obtained flawed again in June.

That’s simply the mindset of a fighter, after all, and Kambosos, 20-1 (10), is definitely a kind of. He speaks like a fighter, he strikes like a fighter, and he behaves a fighter. Certainly, many argued earlier than his June combat with Haney that Kambosos’ lack of ability to stay calm and indifferent within the warmth of battle – that’s, his lack of ability to cease functioning and considering like a fighter – would in the end result in his downfall towards the extra naturally gifted and composed American. It confirmed all through, too, with Kambosos wound up and overly emotional heading into the combat after which, through the combat, crippled by the form of nervousness and desperation felt solely by these making an attempt too laborious in entrance of their very own followers.

Haney, in distinction, couldn’t have reduce a cooler determine. Not as soon as overwhelmed, not by the Australian crowd nor Kambosos huffing and puffing, he remained settled and clean always and, whereas maybe not essentially the most thrilling combat of 2022, the exhibition he placed on behind the jab was probably the greatest any boxer has produced this calendar 12 months. In truth, one may argue the combat was received on that punch alone, the necessity for others diminished each by its high quality and the area it granted Haney to maneuver. Moreover, so amped up was his opponent, and so simple was his method, all it took was a single, double or triple serving to of this jab to discourage him, not not like the stabbing of a matador’s sword within the presence of a bull.

The query now, as we put together for the rematch, is that this: to what extent was Kambosos’ battle as a result of his personal limitations as a fighter and to what extent was it as a result of him merely adopting the flawed method? If Haney’s jabbing clinic uncovered his limitations, there may be arguably no hope for Kambosos, no matter how loudly the house followers cheer and the way succesful he’s of motivating himself. Nevertheless, if Kambosos naively believed the method he took to beating Teofimo Lopez in 2021 could be simply as efficient towards a very completely different fighter (each bodily and psychologically), there may be perhaps room for optimism, and for change, and for a special Kambosos in combat two.

Solely he’ll know the reply to that query. He’ll, as typical, speak an ideal combat within the days main as much as it and he’ll, on combat evening, resemble the determine of a warrior out for justice; somebody who this time is aware of all of the solutions. But ultimately, when it comes right down to it, when the speaking stops and all we’ve got to go on is factual proof, it’s the left jab and composure of Devin Haney that may probably as soon as once more converse louder than something his keen however restricted Australian opponent can muster over the course of 12 rounds.

On the Melbourne undercard there are appearances for the Maloney twins, Jason and Andrew, each of whom deal with vastly skilled opponents.

For Jason, a bantamweight with a 24-2 (19) professional report, which means a combat towards Thailand’s Nawaphon Sor Rungvisai, a professional since 2009 whose report stands at 56-1-1 (46). It’s necessary to notice that these 58 bouts all passed off in Thailand, after all, the place the competitors isn’t at all times the strongest, and in addition that Sor Rungvisai is now 31, so could have seen higher days.

Maloney, too, is 31, although one imagines hasn’t obtained the identical variety of miles on the clock. He has received three in a row since being stopped by Naoya Inoue in 2020 and must be favoured to make that 4 this weekend.

His brother Andrew, in the meantime, a flyweight, fights Norbelto Jimenez, a 12-year professional from the Dominican Republic whose final loss got here towards Britain’s Khalid Yafai in 2019. Additionally on a run of three straight wins, Maloney, 24-2 (16), ought to have an excessive amount of for Jimenez, 31-9-6 (16), and will even attempt to power a stoppage, which might, ought to he obtain it, be his third on the trot.