Devin Haney Tricks George Kambosos, Leads To Tense Face-Off

Bill Haney said there better not be any excuses for George Kambosos Jr come Saturday night.

Devin Haney, the undisputed lightweight champion, tried to throw Kambosos off guard by offering a gift — “The Art of War.”

“Dev gave me one job today. He told me to go out and get [The Art of War] for George,” Bill noted during the final pre-fight press conference Friday morning (local time) ahead of this weekend’s rematch.

“We want him to be well prepared and not misinformed. What excuses will he have on the 16th?”

Kambosos wasn’t happy about the gesture. He knocked the book off of the table when he passed to him from Team Haney and Hall of Fame promoter Lou DiBella.

The insider comes from when Kambosos missed weight when the two first met on June 5. Kambosos came in at 135.36 pounds on the first try. Less than two hours later, he weighed at 134.39 pounds instead.

“The art of war, baby. Deception,” Kambosos insisted at the time when he was the unified lightweight champion.

“Let them believe this was done. Everything is a process. Art of war, deception. I did it on purpose.”

Also during the press conference, the moderator went off script and asked Haney if he was going to face Gervonta Davis after fighting Kambosos.

Haney wasn’t amused.

“How can you even think to bring up Gervonta Davis when George Kambosos is sitting right there, right in front of me? It’s no way that I can be looking past him,”
Haney said.

“He’s right there in front of me. That’s the man I got to go through, and then once I go through him, then we’ll talk about what’s next, but my main focus is him.”

This all lead to a tense face-off at the end of the presser.

Haney and Kambosos meet for the second time in Melbourne, Australia — the home of Kambosos. They fight on October 16 (October 15 in the U.S.)