The day George Kambosos Jr shocked legendary boxing trainer Johnny Lewis

Johnny Lewis, well into his 70s by then, was slowing down a bit but could still hold pads. His task at the training session that day was straightforward: force such a gruelling pace on the pads that the young upstart broke down.

It’s a job he’s done countless times over the last half-century.

Most fighters last two or three rounds – nine minutes at most – under Lewis’ ferocious pace before they’re broken and gasping for breath.

Lewis had been warned Kambosos was fit.

The confident Greek kid had once punched a wall-mounted uppercut bag loose at St Clair’s gym. The screws holding the bracket in place had simply given up, and chunks of the wall fell in a powdery dust on the padded black floor.

Lewis expected Kambosos to last four rounds – five at a stretch.

Six rounds came and went. Seven rounds. Eight. Nine. Ten.

Kambosos kept punching. It’s possible he started hitting harder as the rounds wore on.

For the first time in years, Lewis realised he couldn’t break his man down.

“At midnight I gave up,” Lewis recalls. “He impressed me so much. He was so fit, mate. So fit.

“He was still coming at me. I asked him if he’d had enough, but he said, ‘No, keep going.’ I just told him I had somewhere to be and we stopped.”

Kambosos remembers that day well.

“I had to keep going because if I quit once – and I never have – or took a shortcut or took the easy road, then I’d do it again and again,” Kambosos says. “It becomes a habit.”

That’s the mentality he has taken into the home gym he calls the ‘Torture Dungeon’, from his early days slugging his way into the professional fight game to now, as he prepares for Sunday’s bout with Teofimo Lopez at Madison Square Garden for the unified lightweight world titles.

Down a flight of stairs, in what looks like an old carport, Kambosos has everything he needs to keep in shape: heavy bags, a speed bag, weight racks, a Ski Erg, treadmill and an assault bike.

There are also fight posters. Dozens of them lined around the walls for motivation. Mayweather vs Maidana, Pacquiao vs Cotto, Pacquiao vs Hatton, Mayweather vs Marquez. On and on.

What he doesn’t have down there is someone else to spur him on. The space is his alone.

The lumps in the heavy bags from the barrage of punches? Those are from Kambosos.

The wear on the floor mats from shadow boxing? That’s him, too.

Down there, it’s just George Kambosos Jr, wailing away at the heavy bag, alone with his thoughts and dreams. An almost monastic devotion to the craft.

This is how he’s done it his whole career.

It started with Kambosos, then an overweight kid, picking up a pair of boxing gloves to drop kilos and stop the schoolyard bullies from hounding him.

When he realised the boxing talent he possessed, he rose up the ranks by fighting on Anthony Mundine’s and Sonny Bill Williams’ undercards before taking out the best lightweight talent in Australia.

During that time, he was an impatient, hot-headed tyro, angry at the world, and with a singular focus on becoming world champion. His outspokenness rubbed many people the wrong way.

These days, Kambosos has mellowed – a little. He’s still hot-headed at times, and the goal remains a world title, but the motivations have changed.

“It’s for them. It’s all for them,” he says of his three children. “Back then I used to scrounge around for fights in Australia for small amounts of money, now I’m fighting for millions to set my family up.

“It’s not about me anymore. It’s for my kids and my family. I’m 36 minutes away from not only securing my kids’ future, but their kids’ future as well.

“It’s generational wealth that I have in my two hands right now. That’s my motivation and my inspiration. They’re my world.”

His eldest, Evaliah is four years old and is starting to understand why Dad spends such a long time away from home.

And, this year particularly, it’s been a lot of time spent away.

Kambosos’ bout with Lopez has been rescheduled, postponed, cancelled, moved or rearranged at least five times. Lopez caught Covid-19 just days before they were scheduled to step into the ring in June. A few months later the original promoters, Triller, lost the rights to stage the lightweight title bout after months of missteps, bungled deals and general ineptitude.

By that time, Kambosos had already spent more than four months in the US, away from his family. He returned home and headed Stateside again a little under a fortnight ago.

It has been a challenging period on many fronts, not least because his partner, Bec, delivered a new life into the world while another, that of his terminally-ill grandfather, departed it.

Before one of the many fight postponements, Kambosos was due to fly to Miami on September 25, so they had the baby induced the day prior.

“The baby was born at 11:45 that morning, and just three hours later my grandfather, who had cancer, took his last breath,” Kambosos says. “He passed away that same day, and that night, I trained. I haven’t stopped. I haven’t even grieved my grandfather yet.

“It’s tunnel vision, I’m so entrenched in this fight. I’m unbreakable. If something like that can’t break me, I can’t be broken.”

His path from chubby kid to world title contender has left a lasting impression on some of the biggest names in Australian sport.

“He never had any of the big promotion behind him,” former NRL veteran-turned boxing drawcard, Paul Gallen says. “He never had a No Limit helping him, so he went and did it on his own. And the way he’s done it, going overseas very early on, it’s turned out pretty good for him.

“Look at where he is now.”

Like Johnny Lewis, Gallen has seen Kambosos’ drive firsthand.

In his playing days, Gallen went to Kostya Tszyu’s gym above Rockdale PCYC for extra boxing and conditioning sessions. Gallen was still a few years away from beginning his own boxing career, and Kambsos, who was learning his trade, was a talented prospect.

But the Sharks and New South Wales Origin captain knew enough to keep an eye on him.

“We were 110kg footy players walking around the gym, and he was tiny – just a teenager,” Gallen says. “I didn’t know enough about boxing then to know he was going to be as good as he turned out to be, but he was just an unbelievable trainer.

“Just a beast. We’d all be up there training and see him and he was just a weapon.”

That hard-work ethic has taken Kambosos from Rockdale to the world. In the last four years, ‘Ferocious’ has fought eight times in six different countries and eight different cities.

The ultimate road warrior.

This weekend he’s back at Madison Square Garden – once the Mecca of boxing – and once again he has been installed as a huge underdog, to the tune of $7 with the bookies.

While the Sydneysider hasn’t strayed from the path, there have been consistent rumours surrounding Lopez. Whispers about his partying, training and his relationships with his wife and his father have created an air of uncertainty over what shape he’ll show up in.

“I honestly believe he has a huge opportunity,” Australian boxing great, Jeff Fenech tells CODE.

“All Teofimo is talking about is everything else except for George. He’s talking about all these other fights – he thinks he’s already beaten George.

“If he hasn’t concentrated and done the work, George has a huge look in. George needs to take a risk and test Teofimo and make him fight the fight he doesn’t want to.

“Can he do it? Of course he can. Of course he can.”

Five days before he flew to Florida to complete his training camp ahead of his showdown with Lopez, Kambosos was relaxing at home with Evaliah.

Dad and daughter were lying on the couch, looking through photos on his phone when they scrolled past a snapshot of the promotional poster set to be used during fight week.

“That’s the fight, Dad! That’s the fight.”

Kambosos zoomed in on Lopez wearing every major belt available in the 135 pound division, and made a promise to the oldest of his three kids.

“You see those belts? I’m going to bring them home for you.”

Evaliah didn’t skip a beat.

“She turns around and goes, ‘But, Dad, if you give them to Leo, he might break them!’” he laughs.

“We haven’t had five belts – five beautiful belts – here in Australia.

“Everything that’s in boxing is going to be here in Australia. Not only mine, but the country’s and my family’s.”