GEORGE KAMBOSOS TO FIGHT DAUD YORDAN MARCH 22 AT QUDOS BANK ARENA IN SYDNEY
George Kambosos Jr. will be heavily favored to win his first fight in eight years in his hometown of Sydney.
The Ring has learned that the Australian star will square off against Indonesia’s Daud Yordan in a 10-round junior welterweight match March 22 at Qudos Bank Arena. DAZN will stream Kambosos-Yordan worldwide as a main event.
Yordan (43-4, 31 KOs) has won five fights in a row, all by knockout or technical knockout. He is 37, however, and has boxed only five times since he lost a 12-round unanimous decision to England’s Anthony Crolla six years ago in their fight for Crolla’s WBA lightweight title.
Kambosos (21-3, 10 KOs) will compete for the first time March 22 since his longtime promoter, Lou DiBella, partnered with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing on handling his career.
The plan DiBella and Hearn originally formed for Kambosos was for him to challenge IBF junior welterweight champion Richardson Hitchins in June in New York if he were to win March 22.
Brooklyn’s Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) might instead box WBO junior welterweight champ Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) next in a title unification fight for The Ring belt, which Lopez possesses, and their IBF and WBO crowns. Kambosos could face the Lopez-Hitchins winner later this year if they fight late in the spring or early in the summer.
Top Rank founder Bob Arum, Lopez’s longtime promoter, confirmed to The Ring that Lopez was offered a three-fight deal to appear on Riyadh Season cards organized by Turki Alalshikh, owner of The Ring. Lopez and Alalshikh met numerous times in London earlier this month to discuss possibly partnering with Top Rank.
Lopez, 27, also announced last week that he joined forces with new co-managers, Mike Borao and Keith Connolly.
Kambosos, 31, is set to box in Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, for the first time since he beat Brandon Ogilvie (then 17-1-1) by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder in December 2016 at Luna Park. He has won only one of his four fights since he upset Lopez by split decision in November 2021 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Former undisputed lightweight champ Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) dominated Kambosos in back-to-back 12-round, 135-pound title fights that he won by unanimous decision in 2022. Kambosos edged English southpaw Maxi Hughes (28-7-2, 6 KOs) by majority decision in his first fight following his second defeat to Haney in July 2023.
Ukraine’s Vasiliy Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) beat Kambosos by 11th-round TKO in his last match May 12 at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. Lomachenko won the then-vacant IBF lightweight title that night.
