Richardson Hitchins produced a clinic against George Kambosos Jr on Saturday to retain the IBF super-lightweight title, stopping the former world champion in round eight.
American Hitchins comfortably outlanded Kambosos Jr in every single round, before dropping the Australian with a left hook to the body in the eighth frame.
Kambosos Jr, who turned 32 on the day of the fight, made it to his feet but winced at the referee on the eight count and did not look prepared to continue boxing. As such, the official waved off the fight.
With that, Hitchins kept his belt and his unbeaten record, moving to 20-0 (8 knockouts). Meanwhile, Kambosos Jr fell to 22-4 (10 KOs) and failed to add to his two world-title reigns at lightweight.
Hitchins said in his post-fight interview in Madison Square Garden Theater: “I’ve been telling the boxing world, I’m the truth. If you don’t know, now you know. I’ve been telling the boxing world that I was coming, and they should’ve listened. So, now I’m here.
“I’d seen the fight with him and Devin Haney [who outpointed Kambosos Jr twice in 2022]. I knew that Devin Haney didn’t really take it inside, and he was headhunting a lot when he did have him hurt. So, I said I’m gonna touch him with some short shots.
“When I did touch him with a short shot, I seen how he squinted, and I smelled blood, but I just wanted to keep punishing him. And I told his dad: ‘If you love your son, you’ll stop the fight.’ So, he was tough. He was a true competitor, but I was just the better man tonight.”
Hitchins, 27, was alluding to moments late in the fight, when he shouted at Kambosos Jr’s corner. That followed an exchange between Kambosos Jr’s father and Hitchins’s trainer at a chaotic fight-week press conference. There, Jim Kambosos appeared to strike Lenny Wilson with a microphone, before Hitchins stopped his coach from throwing a chair.
“He’s a hell of a fighter,” Kambosos Jr said after the bout. “They’re all great fighters, I chase greatness. I really believed in myself, but I just didn’t have that timing. He was a little bit too good for me tonight.”
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