Every night before going to sleep on a mattress in his gym, George Kambosos sits alone and reads another chapter from Winning.
“Putting me back in the dark,” is how he describes it.
The underdog.
Just a boxer and his book.
Which still, you should know, has its issues.
“Yeah, gets cold in here,” the 29-year-old grins, motioning this particular Wednesday around the makeshift bedroom that was previously the upstairs office of his Mortdale gym.
“But it’s quiet.”
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Which again, is perfect for this latest incarnation of Ferocious Kambosos.
A fella who only four months months ago, and in the fight of his life, walked into a heaving Marvel Stadium with four gold belts branded by IBF, WBC, WBA and WBO – then lost them all.
Which is why he now sleeps in a gym.
Why on the eve of his hyped rematch with American boxing star Devin Haney – the man who took his unified world lightweight crown – this tattooed father-of-three is also devoting time every night, under the light of an old lamp, to reading.
“Which I didn’t do last fight,” he says.
Which matters.
With Kambosos going on to reveal how in his first fight as world champion, he actually drifted away – even if only slightly – from the years of grind, or what he calls “the dark”, that won him those same straps.
Reflecting on his preparation for the first Haney fight, which finished in a unanimous decision loss, Kambosos says: “Instead of staying focused on winning, on what got me to the title, I got caught up in trying to make myself a bigger brand.”
Bigger brand?
“For so long I’d craved the media,” he explains. “Then when I became this big success, it was crazy.
“In the lead up to that last fight, every day the gym was packed.
“Anywhere up to 40, 50 people.
“There was media all the time, too.
“And I just couldn’t focus.
“I was still training hard.
“But everything around me took a toll mentally and physically.
“And you could see in that fight, the relentless style I always bring … it wasn’t Ferocious Kambosos.”
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Which only now, on reflection, he attributes to that heaving gym.
“When you have so many commitments, so much media work, you get very little rest,” Kambosos continues, talking through what would eventually be the first loss of a career that had stretched 20 fights undefeated.
“You get home and you’re on the phone, always doing something.
“It’s work.
“And it takes a toll.
“For a month leading into the Haney fight I was everywhere. The most talked about guy in Australia.
“So your mind, it does start to drift.
“You get distracted.
“Not only with your training, but your diet, your rest, your recovery.
“But still, no excuses. Instead, I’ve just shut a lot of stuff out.”
Which, again, puts Kambosos back in the dark.
The underdog.
Each night, reading another chapter from Winning by Tim Grover, that elite performance coach who spent 15 years working alongside US basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Drawing on some three decades of work with elite competitors, Grover talks not only of his time with players like Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade, but also offers 13 key principles for unbeatable performance.
“And I could’ve tore through it in a couple of days,” Kambosos insists of the tome.
“But I want to stay disciplined, go through it slowly.
“One chapter a day.
“I’ve timed it perfectly, so it will lead me right into the fight.”
Importantly, Kambosos reveals reading has always been something of a routine before all the biggest fights of his career.
Or all of them except one.
“Last fight, I got too busy,” he concedes.
Watch Haney v Kambosos Jr 2 LIVE on Main Event available on Kayo, Sunday October 16 from 11am AEST. ORDER NOW >
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“With everything that was going on, and then trying to be a father for my three kids, it all took a toll.
“But this fight, I’m reading again. I’m so zoned in.
“So Haney can say what he likes in the build up. Social media can say whatever it likes, too.
“Nothing will break my focus.”
Which brings us back to that bed in his gym.
With Kambosos explaining how, a couple of months back, he sent wife Bec and their children off to Portugal for five weeks to be with family.
Then when they returned, the fighter himself moved out.
“So I’ve now been living at the gym for three weeks,” he says. “I’ve got a bed, a fridge, a TV … and no distractions.
“I’m back to where everything started.”
Told there are nicer places a bloke can go for quiet, Kambosos laughs: “Yeah, I could stay in a fancy hotel
“But every morning when I look out over there and onto the gym floor, I can see a heavy bag with Devin Haney’s face on it.
“And I put it on because that’s my mindset. He is the guy I need to beat.
“For almost all my career, I’ve been the challenger.
“The underdog.
“And that’s where I am again now.”
