Kambosos ‘We won the fight by many rounds’

After 12 rounds, it appeared that former unified and lineal lightweight world champion George Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KOs) was on his way to losing his third consecutive fight. However, sometimes in boxing, the scorecards go your way.

For Kambosos, the scorecards went his way as he secured a narrow 12-round majority decision victory against Maxi Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs) Saturday evening at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma, earning a mandatory shot at the IBF crown.

Kambosos takes home his mandatory spot with scores of 114-114, 117-111, and 115-113.

This was Kambosos’ first bout since losing back-to-back fights to Devin Haney in his native Australia. But Hughes, an English southpaw coming off a seven-fight win streak, nullified Kambosos’ aggression with distance and footwork.

Hughes opened up a cut above Kambosos’ right eye in the fifth round. A clash of heads in the sixth round caused a cut above Hughes’ left eye.

The later rounds saw both fighters continuing to set up single shots with feints and jabs. Hughes had more success with his counter left hand, while Kambosos, with a sense of urgency, tried to pick up the pace in the final round.

When the final bell sounded, many thought Hughes had won, and after traveling from England, he was disappointed with the loss.

 “I’m absolutely devastated,” he said after the fight. “Nobody thought I was supposed to be in George’s league. Tonight, I came, and I showed that I should have had my hand raised. I don’t want to take George’s moment.”

Kambosos obviously agreed with the decision.

“We won the fight by many rounds,” Kambosos said. “That’s no discredit to Maxi Hughes. He had a couple good rounds. But a couple good rounds don’t win you the fight. We won a majority of the rounds. That’s the reason we chose him. He was a hard test. A lot of guys coming off losses wouldn’t want to take a test like him.”

Kambosos probably lost this fight, and the more you watch him, the more you wonder how he ever defeated Teofimo Lopez, but this boxing, anything can happen on any given night.