Australian boxer George Kambosos Jr. said that if he wasn’t successful as a lightweight boxer, he would’ve pursued rugby league as a profession.
Kambosos, who is the WBA (Super), IBF, and WBO title holder in the lightweight division, played for the Gymea Gorillas in the Cronulla/Sutherland Junior Rugby League competition and was a Cronulla Sharks junior under NRL great and Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart.
The 28-year-old revealed that he had excelled in both league and boxing and was forced to make a tough choice about which career path he wanted to pursue.
“All I ever wanted to be was a rugby league player for my whole childhood,” Kambosos said on SEN 1170 The Captain's Run.
“I’m a mad Sydney Roosters man so I’d be at the Roosters games with my father.
“Week in and week out, we’d travel all over Australia to go watch the games and support the team.
“It was a dream of mine but in the off season and being of Greek heritage, I’d go over to my grandparents house.
“They’d feed me with a lot of food and the weight started stacking up.
“I was bullied in school so we chose to fall into boxing to help with the weight and my rugby league career.
“I just fell in love with the sport the first day I went into the boxing gym.
“At the same time, my junior rugby league career got better and I made the Sharks development squad but I made the NSW team for boxing as well.
“I couldn’t do both and I had to put my all into one and my love was fighting.
“I chose the road of being a fighter.”
In short career in boxing, Kambosos has a 20-0 with an impressive 10 knockouts and his most recent victory against Teófimo López at the famous Madison Square Garden in New York shot him to instant fame.
As a Sydney local. Kambosos said that it’s his dream to fight at a sellout crowd somewhere in Sydney following his fight at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne in June.
“I love Sydney and I will fight in Sydney. That is 100 per cent one of the things I will do,” Kambosos added.
“Melbourne for this fight, we have a beautiful stadium down there with a great roof where if we have bad weather, we’re safe.
“It’s a mad sporting capital and we have 600-700 thousand Greeks there and I’m a proud Greek-Australian.
“I know this is going to be a sellout.”
Kambosos is scheduled to fight USA boxing giant Devin ‘The Dream’ Hanley who boasts a 27-0 record with 15 knockouts on June 5.