By Jack Tiernan: George Kambosos Jr suffered his second defeat at the hands of Devin Haney last Saturday night in their much-anticipated rematch. There are now fans wondering if ‘The Emperor’ will be able to come back from this latest career setback.

The way that Kambosos was talking after the fight, it’s questionable whether his heart is still in it for him to come back from his second defeat at the hands of Haney.

Without the motivation to get back in the grind to put in the work, Kambosos isn’t going to come back from this loss.

Let’s face it, Kambosos isn’t blessed with physical talent like many of the top 15 contenders in the lightweight division. He’s a blue-collar type of fighter that wins through the hard work that he puts in.

Assuming Kambosos, 29, does choose to fight again, it’s going to be interesting to see if he starts square one or if he uses his popularity to lure one of the talented contenders into fighting him.

It will be difficult for Kambosos to claw his way into the title picture without beating a significant name this time.

When Kambosos was given a title shot against former unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez in 2021, he only needed to beat the aging 37-year-old Mickey Bey and 34-year-old.

Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to be that easy next time for Kambosos, considering he’s going to need to fight quality contenders to get in position to get ranked high enough for another crack at a title. He can’t do it by fighting old guys with no power like he did fighting Selby & Bey.

For another title shot, Kambosos will need to beat at least one if not two of these top 10 contenders:

• Shakur Stevenson
• Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz
• Ryan Garcia
• Michel Rivera
• Jamaine Ortiz
• Jeremiah Nakathila
• Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz
• William Zepeda

Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs) said at the post-fight press conference that he would take a year off from boxing, rest, and enjoy his family before returning to the ring around this time next year.

The scoring for last Saturday’s Haney-Kambosos was odd because although Kambosos fought better than in the first fight, the judges had him losing by a wider margin with the following scores: 119-109, 118-110, and 118-110.

“Not bad. A 12 round war with a pound-for-pound guy yesterday,” said George Kambosos Jr to Fighthype about his loss to Devin Haney.