By Mark Eisner: In what many fans felt was a robbery, former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr (21-2, 10 KOs) won a controversial 12 round majority decision over Maxi Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs) on Saturday night in an IBF 135-lb title eliminator at the Shawnee, Oklahoma.
The scores were 114-114, 117-111, and 115-113. Boxing News 24 scored it for Maxi Hughes 11-1. Kambosos fought well enough to win one round, as he was outboxed the entire night.
Updates & results of tonight’s card will be shown below.
- Lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis (9-0, 6 KOs) was forced to go the ten round distance to defeat Francesco Patera (28-4, 10 KO) by a unanimous decision in the chief support bout. The scores were 100-89, 100-89, and 99-90. Keyshawn knocked the 31-year-old Patera down with a right hand to the head in the eighth round. However, Patera hurt Keyshawn later in the ninth round with body shots and a powerful right hand headshot. For the most part, Keyshawn fought in a safety-first manner, throwing single shots and fighting cautiously, treating Patera as a dangerous knockout threat. In rounds five & six, Keyshawn clinched frequently and throwing few punches. All in all, it wasn’t a good performance from Keyshawn, as he’s not going to beat the top lightweights fighting like that.
- Unbeaten welterweight Giovanni Santillan (31-0, 16 KOs) won a questionable ten round unanimous decision over veteran Eric Bone (27-7, 14 KOs). The scores were 97-92, 98-92, and 97-93. Boxing News 24 had Bone winning 6-4. The 34-year-old Bone landed the harder shots and appeared to get the better of the house fighter Santillan in rounds one through five. In the fight’s second half, Bone gassed, allowing Santillan to rally to edge the rounds. The 31-year-old Santillan has been a pro since 2012, but he’s never stepped it up against top-tier opposition for some reason. After watching Santillan struggle tonight against Bone, one can see why. He has no power to compete with the top 15 opposition.
- Heavyweight prospect Jeremiah Milton (10-0, 7 KOs) stopped 38-year-old Willie Harvey (4-3-2, 3 KO) in the fourth round of a scheduled eight round bout. Milton hurt the 296-lb Harvey in the fourth round and was hitting him at will. At the end of the round, Milton’s corner stopped it. His right was swelling, and he wouldn’t have made it through the fifth if the contest had continued. Despite winning, the 29-year-old Milton didn’t look impressive, not letting his hands go, and seemingly carrying Harvey.
- 2020 U.S Olympian prospect Troy Isley (10-0, 4 KOs) labored to a harder than expected eight round unanimous decision over journeyman Antonio Todd (14-9, 8 KOs) in middleweight action. The scores were 79-73, 79-73, and 79-73. Todd staggered the 24-year-old Isley in the 7th & 8th rounds with right hands. At the end of the fight, Isley looked upset, which is understandable because he didn’t look like a future world champion. Isley started fast in round one, attacking with nonstop shots, but he was forced to give up on the idea of scoring an early knockout due to Todd withstanding his assault.
- Hemi Ahio (21-1, 16 KOs) knocked out the big 300-lb Amron Sands (12-3, 9 KOs) in the sixth round in heavyweight action. Ahio, 33, trapped the exhausted Sands against the ropes and flurried with power shots to the head, resulting in the referee stepping in to halt the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 2:12 of round six. Earlier in the fight, Ahio staggered Sands in the second round, causing him to stumble backward to the corner. Ahio followed with a series of hard headshots that had the contest close to being stopped. In the last ten seconds, Sands came back to hurt Ahio with a hard body shot that shut his offense down.
- Heavyweight prospect Joseph Goodall (10-1-1, 9 KOs) scored a surprising sixth round knockout victory over Stephen Shaw (18-2, 13 KOs). Goodall dropped the 30-year-old Shaw twice in the sixth round. Shaw’s corner halted the fight after the action resumed following the second knockdown in the round. The time of the stoppage was at 2:55. In the first knockdown, the little-known 31-year-old Australian heavyweight Goodall landed a four-punch combination to the head of Shaw to down. In the second knockdown, Goodall connected with a left-right combination to put Shaw down.
George Kambosos Jr will be fighting tooth & nail tonight to stay relevant in his headliner IBF lightweight title eliminator against Maxi Hughes (26-5-2, 5 KOs) in a twelve round fight in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Kambosos’ career is on the line against Hughes.
Last year, Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs) was the guy with all the belts at 135 after his upset win over Teofimo Lopez in 2021.
Unfortunately for Kambosos, his reign as lightweight champion ended quickly with his loss to Devin Haney. In the rematch in October, Kambosos was beaten a second time in a worse fashion and showed that he was incapable of adapting.
The live boxing action will be shown on ESPN, ESPN Deportes & ESPN+ starting at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT. The time of the fight between Kambosos & Hughes will likely be past 11 pm.
Will Kambosos’ career end tonight?
That’s the worry for this fight. If Hughes comes out with a good game plan that has Kambosos confused, there’s a possibility that he won’t adapt and will keep fighting the same way without figuring out how to solve what Maxi is doing.
You got to wonder if Kambosos has a plan B for tonight’s fight because he’s not shown to have one in past fights. That’s obviously a training issue.
If Kambosos Jr’s trainer is failing to adequately prepare him for fights like this, he will continue to fail. Interestingly, many people are giving Hughes no chance of winning tonight, feeling that Kambosos is too fast and talented for him. The fans could be wrong, and that could be the final nail in Kambosos Jr’s career.
Keyshawn Davis (8-0, 6 KOs), arguably the true star of tonight’s event on ESPN, will take on Francesco Patera (28-3, 10 KOs) in the co-feature bout.
Davis has recent wins over these fighters:
– Anthony Yigit
– Juan Carlos Burgos
– Omar Tienda Bahena
– Esteban Sanchez
Top Rank has been taking it easy with Keyshawn, moving him slowly like they often do with prospects. Where you got to start worrying is if he’s still being matched against soft opposition in his sixth year as a pro.
We saw that with Edgar Berlanga, who was never stepped up against quality opposition before he left the company.