After stunning the boxing world, fighters are lining up to have a crack at the new unified lightweight champion George Kambosos.
In the aftermath of the Sydney fighter’s massive upset the likes of WBO super featherweight champ Shakur Stevenson put his hand up to fight the Aussie Down Under, along with fellow American Devin Haney, who owns the WBC lightweight crown.
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Now controversial Las Vegas fighter Roland Romero has taken a swipe at the newly minted unified champion after his mammoth win over Teofimo Lopez, saying he may use his WBA mandatory status to force a title shot, Boxing News 24 reports.
Romero(14-0, 12 KOs) was scheduled to fight ‘regular’ WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) in December on a PPV event, but he was pulled from the card after sexual assault allegations surfaced.
Speaking in the third person, Romero said he still wants to fight Davis, but now that Kambosos has come from nowhere to be the king of the division, he may push for a bout with the fighter from Sydney’s south. In a rant to capture the Aussie’s attention, Romero claimed Lopez was injured during the bout.
“Kambosos is a chump; he really is, and he’s a horrible fighter. Kambosos is a horrible fighter. He’s a horrible, horrible fighter, and he’s a pussy too,” he said.
“He [Teofimo] can’t block hooks because of a torn-up elbow, and he can’t throw s–t. Rolly would knock Kambosos the f–k [out]. That’s not even a question. Teo would knockout Kambosos in the rematch no problem.
“Kambosos loses to EVERYBODY. Literally to everybody, and I’m his f–king mandatory. I’m Kambosos’ mandatory, and he loses to everybody. Yeah, Teo really was injured.
“His elbow, you could tell, and I know because I was with Teo a week before, and I touched his elbow, and he was in pain and about to scream,” he continued.
“You could tell something was up with Teofimo’s elbow because he wasn’t throwing power shots as he’d done in the past, and he didn’t want to fight in close. It must have been painful each time Teofimo threw or blocked a punch with his injured elbow.
“I’m Kambosos’ mandatory. Rolly is ranked #1 in the WBA right now. You have no idea, but I still want Tank. F–k belts. I want Tank, man, and I want to be a pay-per-view star.
“But for whatever reason and that s–t don’t happen [against Davis], I’m still ranked No.1 with the WBA. I get either one of them; it’s funny. I f–k either one of them up.
“That didn’t change the fact that I still want Gervonta, and I still want to knockout Gervonta. There’s another option now [Kambosos] because I’m technically his [WBA 135-lb] mandatory as well.”
Kambosos’ promoters say they’ll let the champion relax for a period and soak in his newfound status before sitting down and picking his next opponent, a bout that is bound to be in Australia in early February 2022.
The lightweight unified champion has said he’s open to fight the winner of this Sunday’s (AEDT) bout between WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney and Joseph Diaz Jr.
He’ll have no shortage of options to bring a huge stadium fight at home, something Kambosos covets.
“I want to come back home and fill out a stadium,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“All those belts, 80,000 people, in Sydney or Melbourne. That’s the next step now.
“I’m coming back with all the marbles and we’ll fill out a big stadium. It would mean the world.”
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