George Kambosos Jr welcomes Vasiliy Lomachenko to his native Australia where the two will battle it out for the vacant IBF lightweight title on May 12 in Perth.
Australian super-flyweight Andrew Moloney hopes to lure expectant WBO champion Kosei Tanaka to his country for a world title showdown on the Lomachenko-Kambosos bill at 15,500 seater RAC Arena.
“It is going to be a great fight,” Moloney said exclusively to ProBox TV. “It is going to be amazing to have Lomachenko out here in Australia too. Look, it's hard to write George off. He has worked extremely hard his whole career and has always had this extraordinary self belief like I have never seen before. Ever since he was a young kid, he has backed himself 100 per cent.
“Most people didn’t think he was going to beat Teofimo Lopez that night! Maybe he has one more big win left in him, which will be absolutely huge if he can pull it off. But it is very hard to go against Lomachenko. He is one of the best fighters to ever do it I believe. His career probably hasn’t gone the way most thought it was going to be since he turned over. There were a few losses he wasn’t expected to take. I know a lot of people think he beat [Devin] Haney last time out. So I think he is going to be very hungry in this fight, determined to get his hands on another world title. We will have to wait and see how it plays out, I don’t want to go against my fellow countryman in Kambosos. If he can pull it off, it would be massive for him and Australian boxing. Hopefully he can do it.”
Moloney and Kambosos spent their adolescent years in the same national amateur system together. The Aussie warriors go back decades in a small and tight-knit sporting community.
“It is a pretty small sport here in Australia,” Moloney added, “We all know each other very well. Me and George came through the amateur ranks together at a pretty similar time. I’ve known George since he was maybe 16-years-old or so. A lot of us want to see each other do well, we all want to see Australian boxing do what it is doing at the moment. We are really starting to get some recognition now, really starting to make a name for ourselves on the world stage. I hope we can continue doing that. To do that we need these top fighters in big fights and winning world titles.
“I haven’t seen much of George in the last couple of years because he lives in a different State, but I always wish him the best. We will send each other messages before fights, he always supports me and I’ll always support him.”
