Kambosos wants Liam Paro, Teofimo rematch in 2025
George Kambosos Jr is eyeing two titleholders at 140.
George Kambosos Jr is plotting out his 2025 in the boxing ring after signing with Matchroom, and has both Liam Paro and Teofimo Lopez in his sights.
Kambosos, 31, is coming off of a one-sided loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko last May, and is heading up to 140 lbs after going 1-3 in his last four bouts at lightweight, with even his win over Maxi Hughes in 2023 plenty questionable.
The Aussie says the plan is to return in February.
“The vision that I see ... is bounce back late February against a top 10 guy at 140,” Kambosos said. “Then if Paro obviously handles his business, we’ve got Kambosos-Paro — hell of a fight, big stadium fight, to become a two-division world champion.
“And then the big ‘bad blood’ [with] Teofimo Lopez in Sydney, Australia, fill out a 45, 50,000-seater stadium and take his belt once again.”
Kambosos (21-3, 10 KO) lost two straight to Devin Haney in 2022 before the iffy win over Hughes and his stoppage loss to Lomachenko. Paro, as Kambosos notes, has to defend his IBF super lightweight title against Richardson Hitchins on Saturday in Puerto Rico, which is no gimme win, but Paro vs Kambosos would be a big fight in Australia next year for sure.
As for a rematch with Teofimo, that would likely be a relatively easy sell, particularly as a unification.
Whether Teofimo would accept going to Australia is another question and frankly seems unlikely, perhaps particularly now that Kambosos is officially promoted by Matchroom. Matchroom promoted neither fighter when they wound up putting that fight on 2021, having taken the rights to the fight after Triller failed to put the event on, and Lopez complained after of favoritism toward Kambosos, which didn’t really make sense on any level but that goes for a lot of things Teofimo says.
Kambosos does have a strong track record of taking legit fights, so none of this should be taken as empty talk. He’s a fighter who aims high and has proven repeatedly that he’s willing to be an underdog, and he’s also still got some name value and promotes his fights well. If he can win a return in February, he probably will wind up in a notable fight in 2025.