George Kambosos Jr escaped with an incredibly controversial majority decision win over Maxi Hughes tonight thanks to the judges in Oklahoma, including one score card that was as bad as any you’ll ever see.
Judges had the fight 114-114, 115-113, and then an absurd 117-111 from Josef Mason, whose experience has been mainly in low-level fights taking place in Colorado.
The controversial victory means that Kambosos (21-2, 10 KO) jumps into the IBF’s No. 2 ranking at lightweight, as this was an eliminator. Gustavo Lemos holds the No. 1 spot, and with many now expecting Devin Haney to vacate his four lightweight titles and move up in weight, Kambosos could be in against Lemos for the IBF title soon.
Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 115-113 and 117-111 for Hughes. ESPN’s Mark Kriegel had it 117-111 for Hughes.
The crowd did largely boo his win.
“We won the fight, we won the fight by many rounds, but that’s no discredit to Maxi Hughes. He had a couple good rounds, but a couple good rounds doesn’t win you a fight,” Kambosos said.
“We won the majority of rounds, and look, that’s the reason we chose him, it was a hard test. We wanted to take a test like him, a champion, a guy who’s been on a big win streak. He’s rated all over the sanctioning bodies. This was a hard challenge, and big credit to Maxi Hughes. I got through this fight. I believe the majority of the rounds, I won. I move to the next step.”
Kambosos vs Hughes highlights
Keyshawn Davis UD-10 Francesco Patera Scores were 99-90, 100-89, and 100-89. On our two unofficial cards, we had it 99-90 and 100-89 for Davis, so it was a pretty easy fight to score.
It was a fascinatingly silent crowd for the most part during this fight, other than a brief “USA” chant — you show that Belgian! — after Davis (9-0, 6 KO) got a knockdown in round eight.
Patera (28-4, 10 KO) basically did the job he was realistically signed up to do, hang around and give some rounds if he could, give Keyshawn some work, and then, you know, lose without ever being much of a threat to not lose.
But it’s a win for Davis over a solid veteran opponent, and a step further for him as he looks to get into the world title mix. If Devin Haney decides to vacate at 135 to move up to 140 — and he might — then there will be four belts scattered, and Top Rank will likely muscle their way into the mix for two.
“I give myself, like, a C-plus, B-minus, but we got the win, that’s all that matters,” Davis said, noting he was having some stomach issues. “I can’t really be too hard on myself for not stopping these guys, because they’ve got way more experience than me. But I’m beating these guys every round by unanimous decision.
“So I just gotta take my hat off for just doing the little things like that, sticking to my game plan, listening to my coach, and just having fun in there.”
Undercard highlights and results Giovani Santillan UD-10 Erick Bone (97-93, 97-92, 98-92): Well, first things first, this was a much closer, more competitive fight than those scores are going to make you think. I had this edged for Santillan (31-0, 16 KO) at 96-94, but I could have seen it going to Bone (27-7, 14 KO), and giving Bone two rounds is silly as hell, but this is boxing, this is Top Rank, as they love to say 57 times a night. (“Boxing” obviously extends far beyond Top Rank, but this is a Top Rank show, so they get the dig.) Santillan, 30, still doesn’t look like a serious contender to me, but we said beforehand that Bone has been a tough out for a lot of guys in the past, and he still was one here. He’s had the short end before and got it again in this one, which is too bad, but that’s this business-sport. Again, don’t have a problem that Santillan one, I thought he gutted it out legit, but the judges were apparently not even giving Bone much honest chance.
