Super fight touted
Wilson v Kambosos
PLANS are under way for boxing sensation Liam Wilson and former world champ George Kambosos to square off in a $2m all-Australian super fight.
News Corp can reveal Wilson’s management will begin negotiations with the Kambosos camp this week to stage one of the biggest domestic bouts since the Anthony Mundine-Danny Green blockbuster in 2006.
One of Australia’s hottest prospects, Wilson has arrived as a world-class talent in the wake of his heroic display against Emanuel Navarrete last Friday, almost upsetting the Mexican champion in his world-title debut in Arizona.
Wilson dropped Navarrete – unbeaten in a decade – in the fourth round and it was only a farcical 27-second count that robbed the Australian of the type of world-title boilover Kambosos conjured against Teofimo Lopez 15 months ago.
The Queenslander ideally wants a world-title rematch against Navarrete, but with the Mexican unlikely to wage another war with Wilson, the 26year-old has Kambosos in his sights. Kambosos is chasing a confidence-boosting victory after losing his world titles in back-to-back losses to Devin Haney last year and Wilson’s manager confirmed he would kick off talks for an Australian mega fight with “Ferocious”.
“We absolutely want George Kambosos,” said Wilson’s agent Steve Scanlan. “A rematch with Navarrete would be great, but if that doesn’t eventuate, we want our next fight to be with Kambosos.
“I think Liam showed he deserves a crack at George, and this week I will reach out to the Kambosos camp and we’ll begin discussions to put together a possible title bout.
“Given what Liam showed against Navarrete, it would be a massive all-Australian fight and one of the most exciting domestic fights in decades.
“It’s not as hard as it might seem to put this fight together. If both parties want to fight, it would be easy to do.”
Kambosos (20-2, 10KO) recently turned down the opportunity to fight American sensation Shakur Stevenson (19-0) and is weighing up options as he plots a comeback path following his failures against Haney.
The 29-year-old Sydneysider cannot afford a third consecutive defeat and would fancy his chances of disposing of classy super featherweight Wilson (11-2, 7KO), who is prepared to step up to lightweight to challenge Kambosos.
“Liam would have no trouble putting on weight,” Scanlan said. “We could potentially do the bout at a ‘catch weight’ (an agreed weight between divisions), but I’m a flexible negotiator and if George wanted to do the fight at lightweight, Liam would certainly go up.
“George would be the Aside, but I would say both guys could easily make $1m from the fight, especially after the way Liam performed in his first world-title fight.”