All boxers need dedication but, if you want to be a world champion, you have to be willing to go to the next level.
Which is exactly what George Kambosos Jnr has done.
Kambosos will fight Perth’s Brandon Ogilvie at Luna Park on December 2 in one of the biggest Australian bouts of the year, with the No.1 and 2 ranked lightweights in the country going head to head.
And Kambosos, ranked No.14 in the WBA, has left nothing to chance in his preparation with a win likely to push him one step closer to a world title fight.
The 23-year-old from Sylvania, 10-0 as a professional, headed to the US for a training camp with Manny Pacquiao’s Australian trainer Justin Fortune in August in what he described as the toughest six weeks of his young career.
Including work done at home against the likes of Ryan Waters and Jack Brubaker, Kambosos has sparred for an incredible 160 rounds to prepare for the Ogilvie bout.
Kambosos told the Leader he was in the best condition of his career.
“I’ve sparred some of the best in the world,” he said.
“Sergey Lipinets, [he’s] 10-0, he’s fighting for a world title eliminator at welterweight. Andrey Klimov, a Russian who has been the distance with Terence Crawford who is pound for pound one of the top guys. I belted these guys. I made these guys look like amateurs.
“[Ogilvie’s camp] went and said some bullshit about I went to America and shadow boxed in front of the mirror. If that’s what he truly believes then he’s not training hard enough. We didn’t go there and shadow box, we went there and sparred the best in the world and even got offered to go and spar Manny. So we must have made some impression.
“It’s the best I’ve ever felt. You can look at my face, in 160 rounds I don’t have a mark on my face. There’s no bruises, no nothing. I’m going into this fight fresh and clean. I’m not sparring little kids. I don’t really care who he’s sparring. But I know he’s not getting the guys I’m sparring.”
Ogilvie, ranked No.1 in Australia and No.12 in the WBA, is on a five-fight winning streak which included an impressive victory over former Australian lightweight champion Darragh Foley.
And the bad blood between the pair is real, having fought three times as amateurs.
Ogilvie was also forced to pull out of the pair’s first meeting – scheduled for the Danny Green undercard in Melbourne in early August – with a cut.
The 22-year-old Western Australian’s camp have been vocal in the lead up, with Kambosos ready to settle the score in the ring.
“Everything he’s pulled up hasn’t been relevant to anything. He knows when it comes down to the fight what it’s going to be. He can say whatever he wants. I've been telling it the way it is,” he said.
“He’s still an amateur, he’s a part-time wannabe. I’m full-time, I train three times a day. From 11-years-old I’ve been doing it. I study boxing day in, day out. I’m a student of the game and he’s going to realise that real quick.
“[In] round one [or] round two, if he lasts that long, he’s going to realise [I’m] on another level.
“He pulled out of the first one. If he’s a fighter, a cut would have healed in three or four weeks. If you’re that good and he believes he’s that good, fight. And we could have had it already done and dusted and we could have been on to the next chapters in our career.”
