By Sean Jones: IBO lightweight champion Maxi Hughes will be looking to finish off the career of former unified 135-lb champion George Kambosos Jr this Saturday, July 22nd, in their main event fight at the Firelake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma
This is an IBF lightweight title eliminator, so the winner will be in a position to fight undisputed champion Devin Haney if he holds onto his belts.
If Haney vacates, the Hughes vs. Kambosos Jr winner could face #1 Gustavo Lemos (28-0, 18 KOs) for the vacant IBF title.
Hughes-Kambosos Jr is a fight that has gone under the radar of most boxing fans because Top Rank hasn’t done much promoting it, which is understandable.
Will Kambosos retire if he loses?
Kambosos has lost his last two fights against Devin Haney, and there isn’t a good path back for him if he gets beaten by Maxi Hughes on Saturday. Hughes is a decent fighter, but many in the 135-lb division would likely make easy work of him.
How would Kambosos come back from a loss to Hughes? It’s likely that Top Rank will match Kambosos up with Keyshawn Davis anyway, regardless of his losing, and that would be an impossible fight for George to win.
If your Kambosos, you’re going to want to move down to super featherweight after a loss to Hughes because it would be beyond ridiculous for him to stay at 135. To do anything at lightweight, Kambosos must beat guys at Hughes level because it gets much tougher as you move up the food chain against these killers:
– Shakur Stevenson
– Keyshawn Davis
– Vasily Lomachenko
– Isaac Cruz
– Frank Martin
– William Zepeda
– Raymond Muratalla
– Gustavo Lemos
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Artem Harutyunyan
– Giovanni Cabrera
– Floyd Schofield
– Angel Fierro
– Michel Rivera
– Jamaine Ortiz
There wouldn’t be much interest from boxing fans in this match-up, no matter how much of a promotional push it was given, because Kambosos is viewed as a one-hit-wonder.
Kambosos Jr (20-2, 10 KOs) has lost his last two fights, and his days as a headliner could be coming to a stretching halt if he loses to Hughes (26-5-2 (5 KOs).
Top Rank recently signed the 30-year-old Kambosos Jr, presumably to feed him to Shakur Stevenson or Keyshawn Davis, but he get beaten before they get a chance to let those fighters use him as practice.
Hughes has looked excellent lately, beating former IBF featherweight champion Kid Galahad, Ryan Walsh, Jovanni Straffon, Paul Hyland Jr, and Jono Carroll.
Complete card
George Kambosos Jr vs. Maxi Hughes
Keyshawn Davis vs. Fancesco Patera
Giovani Santillan vs. Erick Bone
Troy Isley vs. Antonio Todd
Amron Sands vs. Hemo Ahio
Roney Hines vs. Michael Pirotton
Stephan Shaw vs. Joseph Goodall
Jeremiah Milton vs. Willie Harvey
Maxi Hughes is an upset-minded tough fighter. He’s obviously the current IBO [lightweight] champion, which really doesn’t mean too much. He’s still a champion somewhat,” said Billy Dib to Jai McAllister: BOXING about George Kambosos Jr’s fight this Saturday night against IBO 135-lb champion Maxi Hughes on ESPN+.
“He’s upset a few people. He upset Kid Galahad and has had a couple of good wins. If George doesn’t turn up and put on a sizzling performance, he might get upset again,” said Dib, failing to realize that Kambosos Jr’s two losses last year to Devin Haney weren’t upsets. The oddsmakers predicted Kambosos would lose, and he did in a one-sided fashion.
“I definitely feel that George has the skillset to upset this guy [Hughes] and beat him pretty comfortably, and it’s a world title eliminator. So it sets up an opportunity for George to fight for a title for what I feel will be a vacant [IBF lightweight] title because, from what I understand, [WBO 140-lb champion] Teofimo Lopez will fight Devin Haney at some stage.
“With that happening, Devin will vacate all the lightweight titles, and that opens up an opportunity for George Kambosos to maybe win a vacant world title again,” said Dib.
