George Kambosos Jnr

Kambosos was born in Sydney, Australia to parents of Greek descent.[1] His grandparents hail from Sparta and Kambosos Jr has the famous Spartan army war cry "Never retreat, never surrender" tattooed on his body in homage to his heritage.[2] He began playing junior rugby league for the Gymea Gorillas at a young age[3] and was often bullied as a child for being overweight so his father enrolled him in boxing classes at 11 years of age to improve his fitness.[4] Kambosos quickly dropped the excess weight and was placed in the Cronulla Sharks development squad where he was coached by Ricky Stuart but found himself at a crossroad as a teenager when he was forced to choose between boxing and rugby league.[3] He elected to pursue the boxing pathway and began his fighting career by amassing 85 wins in 100 amateur fights before turning professional.[5]

Kambosos made his professional boxing debut at the age of 19 when he faced Filipino fighter Jayson Mac Gura and was victorious via a second round technical knockout. In December 2016, he captured the WBA Oceania title by beating world number nine Brandon Ogilvie.[6][7] He then went on to face Qamil Balla in May 2017,[8] whom he defeated by unanimous decision in a ten-round fight.[9] Five months later, he knocked out Krai Setthaphon in the ninth round and won the WBA Oceania and IBF Pan Pacific titles in the lightweight division.[10] In June 2017, Kambosos was tabbed by Manny Pacquiao as his main sparring partner in preparation for the fight with Jeff Horn[11] and has remained Pacquiao's main sparring partner for his fights after Horn as well.[12] In April 2018, Kambosos signed a promotional contract with DiBella Entertainment.[13] In May 2018, he made his debut in the US[14] and knocked out Jose Forero in just 1 minute and 48 seconds.[15] On 19 January 2019, Kambosos defeated Rey Perez at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs Adrien Broner via unanimous decision in his second fight on US soil.[16] On 7 June in Athens, Kambosos returned to his native land of Greece and knocked out Venezuelan 11–2 (9 KOs) Richard Pena in round six in front of the packed out Galatsi Olympic Hall. He called out former two division world champion José Pedraza after his victory. In December of 2019, Kambosos defeated former IBF lightweight champion, Mickey Bey by split decision on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs Egidijus Kavaliauskas.[17] On 31 October 2020, Kambosos defeated former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby by split decision at The SSE Arena in London.[18] The win over Selby makes Kambosos the mandatory challenger for the IBF lightweight title.[19]

• George Kambosos Jnr at Boxrec