Chris Oliver looks ahead to Saturday's New York showdown between home fighter Richardson Hitchins and a seemingly declining George Kambosos Jr.
Boxing betting tips: Hitchins vs Kambosos
1pt Richardson Hitchins to win in rounds 9-12 at 8/1 (Sky Bet)
The DAZN cameras are in New York as RICHARDSON HITCHINS makes the first defence of his IBF super lightweight title against George Kambosos Jr on Saturday night.
The skilful Hitchins arrives on the back of an impressive victory when taking the belt from the unbeaten Liam Paro, who had previously upset Subriel Matias to claim the title. Hitchins outboxed the Australian for long periods and claimed a well-deserved victory on the scorecards to take his record to 19-0 (seven KOs).
He now faces another Aussie in Kambosos, who is returning to the scene of his shock split decision win over Teofimo Lopez when claiming all the lightweight belts in November 2021. That performance at Madison Square Garden catapulted him into boxing stardom, but he hasn’t recaptured those heights since and comes back to New York with plenty to prove this weekend.
Following the Lopez win, Kambosos’ homecoming went awry as he dropped a couple of wide decisions to Devin Haney in Australia. There was no shame in losing to Haney, but he was comprehensively beaten by the American on both occasions, and even more alarming was his performance against Britain’s Maxi Hughes next time out.
Hughes, who was 26-5-2 at the time, was meant to be straightforward comeback fight for Kambosos, but the Yorkshireman boxed beautifully on the back foot and looked to have done more than enough to claim the victory. The judges disagreed, though, and Kambosos was awarded a majority verdict in arguably the worst decision of 2023.
So, he really should have lost four in a row, as Kambosos was then beaten up and stopped by Vasyl Lomachenko in the 11th session of their IBF lightweight title contest 13 months ago. He did get back on the winning trail against his compatriot Jake Wylie (16-1) with a unanimous decision success in March this year, but Kambosos made much harder work of it than he should have done.
Whether Kambosos (22-3) deserves it or not, he gets another shot at the big time here and can be backed at 10/1 to come out on top. That may seem a little disrespectful at first glance, but he hasn’t looked the same fighter since the Lopez win, and this would be another shock if he were to pull it off.
A 1/10 favourite here, Hitchins is a talented American who still looks to be improving, and his style is all wrong for Kambosos.
Tall and long for the weight, the 27-year-old does the basics very well and controls the range with a lovely jab, throwing a strong right hand on the back of it. There isn’t a great deal of variety to his work, but he is very effective and efficient at what he does, with accuracy the name of his game, and he wastes very little.
Utilising good footwork and a smart jab is exactly how Haney beat Kambosos twice, so the blueprint is there for Hitchins, who has a similar style to the former. Hitchins is also a sharp counterpuncher, as we saw when he started to time Paro’s advances very well last time out, and Kambosos’ aggression could be used against him here.
These two are going in different directions and it’s hard to go against Hitchins as result, especially as the Manhattan resident is fighting in his own backyard. It’s 2/5 to go the distance and the favourite is only 8/15 to win by decision, which looks the most likely outcome given he has only stopped seven of his 19 victims.
However, I am reluctant to get stuck into to a Hitchins points victory at such prohibitive odds, even though that is a very worthy favourite in the method of victory market. There are a few reasons why I think there’s a chance he could stop Kambosos late on, and the 8/1 available for him to WIN IN ROUNDS 9-12 is enough to tempt me in for a small play.
Firstly, all of Kambosos’ best work was at lightweight and he hasn’t faced anyone as big as Hitchins so far. The Australian hardly dazzled in his first fight at 140lb last time against Wylie, who had been stopped in a six-rounder before and should have been levels below Kambosos.
Kambosos is looking more like damaged goods with each fight and his gas tank seems to be failing him these days. He was overwhelmed and stopped by Lomachenko late on, and he was caught an awful lot by Wylie when fading in the second half of their bout earlier this year.
Also, we regularly see fighters raise their game to new heights after they become a world champion and that could well happen with Hitchins, whose confidence will be sky-high right now.
So, I fancy Hitchins to justify the odds and that may well be by decision, but the potential is there for a late stoppage at long odds, and we could get a good run for our money.
Posted at 1235 BST on 13/06/25
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