Jim Kambosos, father, manager, and trainer of Australian former lightweight champion George Kambosos, shared his thoughts in an exclusive interview with marvelbetgames.com about his son’s fight against Vasiliy Lomachenko scheduled for May 2024.
“Vasiliy Lomachenko is one of the greatest boxers in the lightweight division, with numerous historical records, including being a two-time Olympic champion and having over 300 amateur fights. Both George Kambosos and Lomachenko had excellent preparation. We brought in Russian sparring partners to Australia. George was trained by Anton Kadushin, the same coach as Imam Khataev’s, an Olympic medalist from Tokyo. We had the right formula, strategy, and plan to beat Lomachenko. In Perth, we were very confident that we could win and compete for the IBF world championship title. Lomachenko was concerned about Kambosos. He knew that George has exceptional skills and power. Lomachenko's manager, Egis Klimas, told me after the fight that Lomachenko trained harder than ever. He prepared for six months and was very worried that George would be fighting in front of his home crowd. The fight was quite close, and it seemed like we were doing everything right. However, George got hit to the top of the head in the fourth or fifth round, and that changed things a bit. But no excuses. We aren’t looking for excuses. Lomachenko stepped up to another level. This guy is amazing. If there was anything we could have changed about that fight, it would have been for George to continue doing what he did in the first three or four rounds, which was putting pressure on Lomachenko,” said Kambosos.
You have to keep pressing Vasiliy, consistently applying pressure and not giving him space. Once he finds room, he starts to feel comfortable: cutting angles quickly and landing accurate punches. Everything was going well for us in the first few hits, but after Lomachenko created distance, he began to throw punches. However, we are very proud to have fought a great fighter like Lomachenko.
On May 12, 2024, a boxing match for the vacant IBF and IBO world championship titles took place at RAC Arena in Australia between Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos. Ukrainian boxer Lomachenko won by technical knockout in the 11th round, marking his 18th victory in his professional career.
