Australian boxer George Kambosos Jr has relinquished his 3 world titles belts with a unanimous defeat to American Devin Haney in their lightweight blockbuster in Melbourne.
Haney inflicted on Kambosos the first loss of his 21-combat career at Marvel Stadium to feature the WBA, WBO, and IBF titles to the WBC strap he already held.
The 23-yr-old joins one of a kind membership of 7 fighters, along with legends Bernard Hopkins, Terence Crawford, and Tim Tszyu’s looming opponent Jermell Charlo, to unify a division in the 18-yr four-belt era.
Two of the judges offered the bout 116-112 to Haney, with the third giving it 118-110 to The Dream from Las Vegas.
The new undisputed lightweight champion prolonged his unbeaten record to 28 wins with a pure show of boxing in the most important combat ever on Australian shores.
Kambosos landed the first huge punch of the combat, a heavy right to Haney’s head, in the 2nd as the Australian had his challenger retreating.
A more aggressive Haney took the third round with a sequence of left jabs and seemed to have also shaded the fourth earlier than Kambosos delivered a huge left hook late.
Kambosos landed another strong, much-need left in the 6th round as Haney’s peppering jab began to show on the Australian’s face.
Haney managed rounds seven and eight, leaving Kambosos to find something to sway the judges.
He did so, the Greek-Australian spartan warrior touchdown 3 huge rights to take the 9th round as the home crowd of virtually 50,000 enthusiasts willed their local hero to dig deep.
