Australian slugger George Kambosos Jr has made a scary admission and provided an insight into the mindset that helped him beat Teofimo Lopez in the biggest boxing upset of the year.
Many pundits tipped Kambosos Jr – paying upwards of $6 just to win – to get knocked out in the first round or two, but the Aussie shocked the combat sports world by pummeling Lopez to win by split decision at Madison Square Garden last month.
Lopez struggled to keep up with the pace and aggression with which Kambosos attacked him from the opening bell.
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Kambosos was clearly prepared to cop plenty of punishment in his quest for victory, but he’s now revealed the extent of his commitment.
He appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast and was asked about the arrogance of the Lopez camp, and their plan to simply bully the Aussie fighter and try knock him out with one punch in the opening round.
“For certain fighters, it works. But when you come up against a guy that was prepared to die in that ring… as scary as it is, and I trust my corner… but I was honestly prepared to die in that ring,” Kambosos said.
“I told my wife before we went to the arena, ‘I’m prepared to die tonight. If anything happens, everything is for the kids and yourself’.
“I’m here to win this fight by any means. That’s the kind of fighter (I am).
“And the shots that I took in that fight, I think he takes out any lightweight in the world. Those were some big shots.
“But I just kept coming.”
Kambosos was booed when he entered the ring in New York, but quickly got the crowd on his side when he knocked Lopez down in the first round with a brutal right hand.
Lopez knocked Kambosos down in the 10th round, but the Aussie got to his feet and recovered to close out the 12-round fight and earn the judges’ scores.
“I know for a fact when he put me down in Round 10, but I got up and finished that round, and came home strong… I know psychologically that would have broken him as well,” Kambosos said.
“That Round 11 was so successful, it really showed what I was about.”
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