FORMER Manny Pacquiao sparmate George Kambosos pulled off a massive upset on Sunday, scoring a split decision against Teofimo Lopez to win the unified world lightweight titles in New York City.
Kambosos, the heavy-handed 28-year-old Australian, stunned Lopez by knocking him down in the opening round with a big right hand that set the tone for the brutal slugfest.
The challenger himself went down in the 10th round, but managed to survive the storm and went on to get the nod of the two judges, 115-111 and 115-112. The remaining one had Lopez the winner, 114-113.
The biggest victory of his career raised Kambosos' record to 20-0 (10KOs), while dealing Lopez his first-ever loss [16-1 with 12 KOs).
'Proud of you'
Kambosos served as Pacquiao's sparmate when the eight-division world champion prepared for his title fights against Jeff Horn and Lucas Matthysse.
Pacquiao immediately sent a congratulatory message to Kambosos.
"Congratulations to my friend @georgekambosos on an epic win," the retired legendary Filipino fighter posted on twitter.
"You helped me in so many of my past fights. I hope our hundreds of rounds of sparring helped you in some way tonight. I'm proud of you."
Kambosos later thanked Pacquiao in his own Twitter post.
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