Boxing: George Kambosos Shocks Boxing World

Undefeated Aussie challenger, George Kambosos went into his Saturday night showdown as the underdog. His opponent, and holder of 3 out of the 4 major championship belts Teófimo López had been expected by many in the boxing world to go on and cement his name as one of the best in the world. Since defeating pound for pound superstar Vassily Lomachenko, the American had seen himself rise to no 7 in The Ring’s pound for pound rankings.

López shocked the boxing world at the end of 2020 when he defeated double olympic champion and pound for pound king, Vassily Lomachenko

The fight couldn’t have started much better for Kambosos, as he scored a knock down in the first round. López recovered well enough, but the challenger seemed to be coming off the better of the two in the exchanges. The fight was close to call and López finally broke through when he floored the challenger in round 10. Behind on the judge’s score cards, this would be the best opportunity for the champion to retain his titles, at points seemingly just a shot away from a stoppage. However, Kambosos would survive the onslaught and had seemingly recovered by the championship rounds.

In what will be a fight of the year contender, both warriors finished the fight on their feet, setting up a nervy finish as they awaited the judge’s decisions. Two would favour Kambosos giving scores of 115-112 and 115-111 with the third scoring it 114-113 for López. A split decision seemed inevitable as there wasn’t much separating the fighters. Kambosos, connected on 182 of 739 punches (24.6%) compared to 176 of 565 for López (31.2%).

Just as there is with any major boxing fight, there was much controversy after the fight, with dethroned champion López insisting he had won 10/12 rounds. López said: "I don't care what anybody says, I won tonight.

"At the end of the day, I've been here, I've done it. Look, I'm not sore loser; I take my wins like I take my losses. At the end of the day, I'm a true champion. I came out here, I did what I had to do and I went out there and I did my best.”

In reality, López should maybe be grateful the score cards were not more in favour of Kambosos. Two of the judges scorecards gave the Australian a 10-9 first round, despite the knockdown scored in his favour, much to the confusion of many fans watching.

Judges Glenn Feldman and Don Trella both left fans confused with their scoring of round 1, when the champion was floored.

It will be interesting to see where either fighter goes from here. There was no rematch clause in the contract so a second fight between the two may not be on the cards, at least for now. With a star studded division that includes talents like Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis and former champion Vasilly Lomachenko, the match up possibilities seem to be endless.