By Craig Daly: George Kambosos Jr says he’s ready to move forward to face Vasily Lomachenko or fight for the IBF lightweight crown next following his questionable twelve-round majority decision over Maxi Hughes last Saturday night at the FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Kambosos (21-2, 10 KOs) appeared to lose the fight against Hughes, 10-2 or 9-3, but surprisingly, the judges gave it to him by the scores: 114-114, 117-111, and 115-113.
Interestingly, Kambosos agreed with the 117-111 score, saying that he felt that Huges (26-6-2, 5 KOs) won only three rounds for a 9-3 loss.
Obviously, the results of the controversial win for Kambosos Jr will stand, and he’ll move on to fight for the IBF lightweight, as it’ll reportedly be vacated by champion Devin Haney, who is moving up to face WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis next.
If Kambosos fights for the IBF 135-lb title, he could fight one of these fighters next:
– Gustavo Lemos – ranked #1 IBF
– Vasily Lomachenko – #3
– Shakur Stevenson – #4
Lemos (28-0, 18 KOs) would be a very difficult fight for Kambosos, even with the same set of judges working that gave him the win last Saturday night.
It’s likely that Kambosos will want his next fight to be staged in his native Australia to give him the home advantage, but that might not help him against Lemos and certainly not Lomachenko or Shakur.
“He’s got a bit of a fan base that came out. The English are quite loud. We won the majority of the fight. He had a couple of good rounds, I give him that,” said George Kambosos to Fight Hub TV following his controversial win over Maxi Hughes.
Kambosos sounded disconnected from reality with his perception of the outcome, as his view of things seemed as if he was unable to mentally grasp what had happened to him.
Hughes clearly schooled him all night, dominating him badly, showing he lacked the talent to fight for a world title again.
“Look, we knew what we came up against. This guy is a top 10 lightweight in the world,” said Kambosos. “This was not an easy fight. He was a cagy fighter. We knew what came up, and we were happy to get the win.
“The 117-111, I was happy with that. I won eight or nine rounds, I gave him three rounds where he just edged it, but it wasn’t enough. I was the aggressor, I landed the cleaner shot, and I hurt him multiple times. It was a good win over a cagey fighter.
“It was good to get the twelve rounds, and we’ll move on to what’s next. An IBF world title shot or Lomachenko. We’ll see,” said Kambosos.
