By Sean Jones: George ‘The Emperor’ Kambosos Jr weighed in at 134.6 lbs, and his opponent Maxi Hughes came in at 134.7 pounds during Friday’s weigh-in for their IBF lightweight title eliminator at the Firelake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
(Photo credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank via Getty Images)
In the chief support weights, lightweight Keyshawn Davies weighed 134.3 lbs, while his opponent Francesco Patera came in at 134.
The Kambosos-Hughes & Keyshawn – Patera event will be shown on ESPN+ at 10 pm ET this Saturday, July 22.
Kambosos’ popularity plummeted in the boxing world in the aftermath of his back-to-back losses to Devin Haney in 2022.
It’s not just the fact that the 30-year-old Kambosos lost to Haney; it’s the way he was taken to school by the younger fighter, looking nothing like a champion and more like a fringe-level contender.
Complete weights for Saturday on ESPN
George Kambosos Jr 134.6 vs. Maxi Hughes 134.7
Keyshawn Davis 134.3 vs. Francesco Patera 134
Giovani Santillan 147.8 vs. Erick Bone 147.6
Jeremiah Milton 255.3 vs. Willie Harvey 296.5
Troy Isley 158.8 vs. Antonio Todd 159.2
Amron Sands 300 vs. Hemi Ahio 247
Stephan Shaw 244 vs. Joseph Goodall 238
This is the perfect opportunity for Kambosos Jr to line himself up to battle the IBF title once Haney vacates it to go up to 140, which he’s expected to do for his next fight.
Top Rank has put Kambosos in a position where he can contest for the IBF 135-lb title, and all he’s got to do is defeat Hughes.
Kambosos focused on Hughes
“I’m still at the top of the top because I’ve only lost to the guy that is #1, the guy [Devin Haney] that has all the belts,” said Kambosos Jr to Fight Hub TV when asked where he views himself in the lightweight division’s landscape.
“My motivation now is Maxi Hughes. I want to be champion again at 135, and from there, we’ll see. Right now, I only have one thing on my mind,” said Kambosos Jr.
What are Kambosos’ chances of becoming champion again? You’d have to say they’re not good because even if he beats Hughes in Saturday’s IBF lightweight title eliminator, he would still need to defeat one of these guys to pick up the belt once Haney vacates:
1. Gustavo Lemos
2. Not rated
3. Vasily Lomachenko
4. Shakur Stevenson
5. Isaac Cruz
6. Frank Martin
7. William Zepeda
“There is a lot of motivation for what’s to come and what can come, but right now, there’s one man standing in the way of this. So I’ve got to knock this guy down like a domino, take him out, and move on to what’s next,” Kambosos Jr said.
“I’m still a very big name, still a very big presence, and it’ll all be shown on Saturday when I get this great win, this great victory, make an emphatic statement, and then we’ll move on from there,” said Kambosos Jr.
It’s true that Kambosos Jr is well known now as a former lightweight unified champion, but he’s not viewed as a talented fighter, and he’d likely lost to as many as 15 of the contenders in the weight class.
‘The Emperor’ ready to scoop up a belt
“The lightweight division is still as hot as any division in the world, but I think there are going to be a lot more openings,” said Kambosos Jr. “I think Devin is going to move up, and these belts are going to be spread open, and from there, we’re going to be able to jump on one of them. We’ll be ready.
“It was a very close fight,” said Kambosos on the Haney vs. Vasily Lomachenko contest. “The way I saw it and the way that others saw it, that’s their opinion. It’s boxing, and sometimes in a close fight, it can be seen with different eyes.
“Devin remained the champion and got all the belts. He now moves on to whatever is next, and Lomachenko, he’s going to move on to whatever is next. He’s going to move on to a big fight and a big name. We’ll see what he does, and we’ll see what Devin does.
“We shouldn’t sit here and say a close fight is a robbery. It was a close fight. The way you saw the fight, the way you saw what shots were landing, and you got an aggressor and good bodywork early. You got a guy [Lomachenko] that was trying to close the fight.
“It was a good fight. I was honored to be there at ringside, watching the fight and its history. We’re focused right now on our plans now,” said Kambosos.