LAS VEGAS — George Kambosos Jr. shocked the boxing world on Nov. 27, when he dropped and ended up defeating Teofimo Lopez via unanimous decision to become a three-belt lightweight champion.
Between those commitments, Kambosos took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk with DAZN News about the first thing he did with the belts, if Teofimo Lopez underestimated him, and how much of the fight he's watched.
(Editor's note: This interview has been conducted for length and clarity and took place two days before Devin Haney vs. Jo Jo Diaz Jr.)
DAZN: How are you getting the belts back in Australia?
George Kambosos Jr.: Well, one thing is I'm not going to put them underneath the flame because I get too worried that someone will steal them or they won't arrive when we got to grab our bags. So they're going to be carried on. They are not going to stop me taking them belts on board that plane. So they're going to be with me, my father, my wife that see that we'll come back home.
DAZN: The one thing I was really paying attention to was when fighters win big fights, they go off and they're out of sight, out of mind for three, four, five, six months. What was the strategy with you and your team of being like, ‘Let's capitalize on this opportunity when other fighters, to be honest, really don't do that?
GK: We didn't even discuss it. It just happened. The media has just continually been coming in and calling and doing all the media work. My team never said, ‘Look, we have to do this’. They didn't have to force me. I think they didn't because they knew that I would be committed and everything I do. I'm always committed and if that comes to preparing the way I prepare, trying to train, or do the media, we'll do it 110 percent. We saw the whole fight week with me and Lopez. I was always committed 100 percent to do what I have to do even to a point where me and Lopez were supposed to do roundtable with Chris Mannix. I said I’m 100 percent in and they didn't want to do it. That's the kind of fighter I am. I'll never steer away from what I have to do to further my career.
DAZN: You had told me when we talked before the fight that you felt the fight was won at the first press conference when you guys had. What was it about just the press conference in general that gave you the confidence seven months later?
GK: I just saw the bits and pieces that I said and then made him really react so I go ‘Ok, he's very emotional. If you think you can get him out of their zone and in boxing you need to be in your zone. You need to be in that zen mode. You have to really be at 100 percent to see everything in slow motion and that's how it was. I said I saw everything. I saw that in that first press conference that I can get under his skin, say a few things and that really took a lead for the rest of the lead up. But in the eyes, when we faced off in the eyes, I saw the eyes and I realized that the eyes don't play. Even now with me and Devin Haney having that good fun that we just had, you can see in my eyes like he's got a fight coming up in two days but I just had my fight and I was in that killer mode. I'm still hungry. I saw a lot in Lopez’s eyes. I saw that and he feed me. I saw that he was very worried about me.
DAZN: Do you feel he underestimated you because that's been one of the narratives coming out of the fight?
GK: I believe he gave me the proper respect because he saw how serious I am, how hard I trained and we saw his body. For him to make that work physically, look very strong, way bigger than what I am. So this was an advantage already. He prepared the way he had to prepare. Now, did he go that extra bit like I did because I went through everything? I pushed myself to the limit everyday, day in, day out to my three sessions a day. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe he thought that I prepare the way I prepare or be in very good shape condition wise, might be ready, I just beat (Vasiliy) Lomachenko, I'm knocking this guy out and I’ll knock this Aussie out too. But little did he know that these Aussies are cut from a different cloth. I've been in this circuit. I've been in the U.S. I’ve learned my trade the hard way.
DAZN: How much of the fight have you watched?
GK: Bits and pieces. The first round, obviously the knock down, when I got dropped, and then some other little bits and pieces. But I haven't watched the full fight. To be honest, I think I'm gonna wait till I get back home to Australia to watch with all my friends and family, do a watch party and just be there in the moment to pretend it's live again because when you're a fighter, you're always in the moment. You're in there doing it. But if you can take a step away and be there with your friends and family watching it, you can relive that again. I think that's probably what I'm trying to do.
DAZN: What was the first thing you did when you got into the hotel room with the belts because I'll talk to some fighters and they sleep with them, some fighters take them into the shower, some fighters just throw them on the couch and call it a day?
GK: That's what we did. We put we put them all on the couch (laughs). I think I took a few videos and then sent them to a few close friends on Snapchat and Instagram. Me and my wife both looked at them and go, ‘This is this is awesome’.
I knew that it was coming, I knew that it was coming. I've been envisioning this from a young kid as an amateur. I knew these belts were already mine. You got to act and have that mentality that you already champion before it ever happens. So it's when it finally happens, it’s ‘Cool, nice’.