Devin Haney supremely confident ahead of title defense vs. George Kambosos Jr.

Devin Haney understands, like most veteran boxers do, that sometimes, just winning is not enough. It also depends on where the fight is being held and the political connections your opponent has that far too often determines who wins and loses.

On Saturday, Haney will defend the undisputed lightweight championship against George Kambosos Jr. in Melbourne, Australia, in a rematch of a one-sided fight he won on June 6 in the same city. At BetMGM, Haney is -700 and Kambosos is +500.

Haney clearly outboxed Kambosos in that first bout and was barely hit. Yet Kambosos, somehow, won four rounds on two of the three judges' scorecards.

Kambosos is from Australia and he returned as undisputed champion after a dramatic victory in 2021 over Teofimo Lopez. More than 40,000 fans turned out to see him defend against Haney at Marvel Stadium, and the bout was major news around the country.

And so while Haney's quickness and boxing acumen made it a one-sided fight, the announcement of the scoring was always going to be concerning for Team Haney. The crowd roared at everything Kambosos did — which, frankly, wasn't a lot — and gave the impression that the fight was a lot more competitive than it was.

Pawel Kardyni scored it 118-110 for Haney, or 10-2. That was in the ballpark, though it was hard to find much Kambosos did in any round to win two.

But Zoltan Enyedi and Benoit Roussel each had it 116-112 for Haney, giving Kambosos four rounds apiece. That came as something of a shock to the new champion.

"It definitely surprised me," Haney said. "I mean, it was hard for me to give him a second of the fight, so him getting four rounds was surprising. But at the end of the day, that fight is over with and we move forward."

The problem, though, from Haney's perspective is that while there is a vast gulf in talent between the two men, Kambosos underperformed in the first bout. No one who saw that bout thinks he'll be able to close the vast gulf that was between them entirely, but he has the potential to make it a lot more difficult for Haney than the first one was.

And given that, if Kambosos is better, what will the judges do if Kambosos is more competitive? It's a legitimate concern for Team Haney, though Haney himself brushes off such concerns.

"My main focus is going in there, sticking to my game plan and winning," Haney said. "You know, I'm not focused on nothing that he's going to bring to the table, nothing that he can do, because I'm so focused on handicapping him of his best attributes."

Haney went into that first fight as somewhat of an unknown quantity even despite his obvious physical skills because he'd faced relatively light opposition and his best opponent prior to Kambosos, Jorge Linares, was on the backstretch of an outstanding career.

Kambosos had comprehensively beaten Lopez to win the title and Lopez is far superior to anyone that Haney had faced.

But Haney showed during the bout why so many in boxing have been so high on him for so long. He boxed magnificently from start to finish, and was calm throughout, even when it looked like his father/trainer, Bill Haney, wouldn't be able to get into the country.

Haney rolled with everything and dealt with all of the hoopla of a major fight in his opponent's homeland brilliantly. He then went out and gave the kind of performance that didn't necessarily make him a superstar, but showed he's on that path.

Haney is a big lightweight and he's intermittently shown pop in his hands, though he didn't for most of the night against Kambosos. That's probably the next level for him, adding the power and finishing ability to go along with the speed, quickness and boxing skill.

Still, it's hard to knock anything he did the first time against Kambosos.

"I think it was the best performance [of my career]." Haney said. "With so much that I was up against and fighting in front of 40,000 Australians. The way I was able to pitch a shutout and take the crowd out of the fight, I think it had to be my best performance."

If Haney wins, it will put him in prime position for big fights. Shakur Stevenson recently moved to lightweight and is one of the best fighters in the world, as are Ryan Garcia, Gervonta "Tank" Davis and Vasiliy Lomachenko, among others, in the mix.

Haney's looking to fight all of them, though he's focused on the task at hand first.

But if things go as expected and the judges don't pull a stunner, Haney is going to have his choice of some lucrative opponents for his next outing. In that case, it's the boxing fans who will be the winners.