Richardson Hitchins delivered a career-best performance on Saturday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, stopping George Kambosos Jr with a withering body shot in the eighth round to retain the IBF’s version of the light welterweight championship.
In his first defense of the 140lb belt, and his first time headlining a card in his hometown, Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) controlled every round before putting Kambosos down with a sharp left hook to the midsection. The Australian rose to his feet before the count of 10, but referee Michael Griffin waved off the fight as Kambosos visibly grimaced in pain, unable to continue.
“I’ve been telling the boxing world I was coming and they should have listened,” Hitchins said afterwards. “I told his dad, if you love your son, you’ll stop the fight. He was tough, a true competitor, but I was just the better man tonight.”
The 26-year-old Hitchins had pledged a punishing performance after a spicy build-up that included cancelled face-offs, bold predictions and tension between camps. After dancing into the ring to a roaring crowd, the native of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood dominated from the outset and won every minute of every round up until the stoppage.
“I knew I had to go to some unsafe places to get some good shots off,” Hitchins said. “I put myself in harm’s way, but I knew I had good defense. He caught me with a couple of good shots, but they didn’t hurt me. So I just went for the kill.”
The Compubox punch statistics lent a quantitative context to the one-way traffic. Hitchins connected with a whopping 205 of 398 punches (52%), while Kambosos landed only 57 of 384 shots (15%).
For Kambosos (22-4, 10 KOs), who turned 32 on Saturday, it was a humbling defeat and perhaps the end of a remarkable run. The Sydneysider had been bidding to join Jeff Fenech and Bob Fitzsimmons on the short list of boxers from Australia to win world titles across multiple weight classes. Instead, he slumped to his fourth loss in six outings.
“Man, I really believed in myself, but just didn’t have the timing,” Kambosos said. “He was a little bit too good for me tonight. He hit me with a beautiful body shot. I still got up before 10, but the ref’s got to do his job.”
Having registered shock waves through the sport with his upset win over Teófimo López in 2021 in this same room, Kambosos has since endured punishing losses to Devin Haney (twice), Vasiliy Lomachenko and now Hitchins. Saturday’s result not only ended his hopes of a second world title, but may have signaled the final chapter of his career. “Right now I’m going to go coach my son’s footie team,” Kambosos said.
Hitchins, meanwhile, continues his promising ascent at 140lb. After outpointing Australia’s Liam Paro of the IBF strap in December, he’s now scored a second straight win over a world-class foe and will head into a likely title unification fight as a promotional free agent.
One possible opponent is Lopez, who took in Saturday’s card from ringside before climbing through the ropes to joing the post-fight patter. But Hitchins appeared to make his preference clear when he closed his interview with an expletive-laden rant calling out Haney, the former unified lightweight champion who has since moved up to the 140lb division.
