For all that he has endured over the past month, making weight turned out to be the easy part for Devin Haney.

Not so much for George Kambosos Jr.

A whirlwind past several weeks saw Las Vegas’ Haney mull the potential absence of his father and head trainer Bill Haney from his corner, and two other team members met with separate visa issues preventing their presence. The 23-year-old. Haney kept his head down and focused on the task at hand, which is his undisputed championship showdown with Sydney’s Kambosos Jr.

There remains to be work for the fight to move forward. Haney was ever the professional, coming in at a shredded 134.92 pounds. Kambosos had to strip down to his birthday suit after coming on heavy on the first try, though still coming in over the limit on the second try at 135.36 pounds.

Kambosos will have two hours to shed 0.36 pounds to avoid losing his titles at the scales.

Assuming the fight moves forward, the pair of unbeaten lightweight champs will meet for their scheduled 12-round main event, which airs live on ESPN (Saturday, 9:00 p.m. ET) from Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. Haney (27-0, 15KOs) attempts the fifth defense of the WBC lightweight title that he has held since 2019. Kambosos (20-0, 10KOs) enters as the lineal/WBA/IBF/WBO champ, having won the divisional crown in a twelve-round split decision over then-unbeaten Teofimo Lopez (16-1, 12KOs) last November 27 in New York City.

The upset win came one week prior to Haney’s most recent bout, a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over 2012 U.S. Olympian and former IBF junior lightweight titlist Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz last December 4 in Las Vegas.

In a breaking news story first reported by krikya360.com, Bill Haney was since approved for a travel visa late Thursday evening and was able to board a pre-dawn Friday flight en route to Melbourne. The family patriarch is expected to touch ground Saturday evening local time, well in advance of the biggest fight of his son’s career.

The co-feature bout pits a pair of former title challengers in a ten-round bantamweight contest.

Two-time bantamweight title challenger Jason Moloney (23-2, 18KOs) fights at home for the first time since November 2019, as he faces Philippines Aston Palicte (28-4-1, 23KOs).

Moloney weighed 117.61 pounds. Palicte tipped the scales at a lean and ready 117.06 pounds. Moloney carries a two-fight win streak since a stoppage loss to WBA/IBF bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue in October 2020. His last four bouts have taken place stateside.

Palicte held legendary countryman Donnie Nietes to a draw in their September 2018 vacant WBO junior bantamweight title fight. A second bid to win the title resulted in a tenth-round knockout loss to Osaka’s Kazuto Ioka, who became Japan’s first-ever male boxer to win titles in four weight divisions in their June 2019 clash. Palicte is currently riding a three-fight win streak.  

In a bout slated for the ESPN+ portion of the show, former secondary WBA junior bantamweight titlist Andrew Moloney (21-2, 14KOs)—Jason’s twin brother—meets Nicaragua’s Alexander Espinoza in a scheduled eight-round bout.

Moloney weighed 116.95 pounds; Espinoza checked in at a slim and trim 115.19 pounds for a bout with a contracted limit of 117 pounds. Moloney has won two in a row since going 0-2 with one No-Contest in his trilogy with current secondary WBA titleholder Joshua Franco (18-1-2, 8KOs).

Below are the weights for the rest of the undercard.

Lucas Browne (30-3, 26KOs), Perth, Western Australia, 261.02 pounds vs. Junior Fa (19-1, 10KOs), Otahuhu, New Zealand, 268.3 pounds—10 rds, heavyweight

Hemi Ahio (18-0, 13KOs), Auckland, New Zealand, 255.51 pounds vs. Christian Ndzie Tsoye (5-4-2, 4KOs), Melbourne, 256.17 pounds—8 rds, heavyweight

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox