The former undisputed lightweight world champion George Kambosos Jnr., appears to be eyeing a return to the ring against Maxi Hughes, targeted for this summer, says ESPN.com's Mike Coppinger. With Coppinger saying the event will likely happen in June, and in Australia.
Kambosos Jnr., lost two one-sided unanimous decisions to Devin Haney, last year as his cinderella win over Teofimo Lopez seems like a distant memory. Now add to the fact, Kambosos Jnr has gotten rid of the manager who got him to that point Peter Kahn, and his coach for the Teofimo Lopez fight, Javiel Centeno.
Hughes is a fighter, who has made a tremendous comeback in the sport of boxing, resurrecting his career, and now riding a seven-fight win streak including wins over Kid Galahad and Jono Carroll. Hughes had been rumored to face Ryan Garcia, but now will get his big moment in the sun against George Kambosos Jnr., in Kambosos’ chance to redeem himself after an awful 2022.
“We recently tried the [Ryan] Garcia for a third time, it [wasn’t] meant to be,” said Maxi Hughes to IFL TV, three months ago. “Boxing is [one of those unique] sports, like look what Dalton Smith is doing - he is out of contract, shopping around and Ben Shalom showed a lot of interest in him….again nobody has approached me, maybe they don’t know [I am] out of [my] contract. I like working with Matchroom, they have done a great job and obviously that is why I am here…obviously I know Eddie wanted to get as big of a fight as possible for me, the bigger fights are all taken up…I think what me and my manager Stefy want to voice, is to look a down the other routes.”
Kambosos Jnr. Who still is viewed by some as one of the better lightweights in the division, now has to deal with the youth invasion including Shakur Stevenson, Keyshawn Davis, Frank Martin, and many others, who are eager to face Kambosos Jnr. For Kambosos Jnr., to get back to where he once was, he needs to look like a million bucks in this fight.
“Was it destined for me to become a world champion - to a point, was their fate behind it - to a point,” said George Kambosos Jnr. Last week on the GEEDUP Co. TV YouTube channel reflecting on his journey to the top. “Did a bit of luck play into, maybe from my handwork - yes, but I saw that you can have all the talent, destiny, fate, luck in the world, but if you’re not putting that work that constant drive. There is someone else getting the same type of destiny and fate that is going to meet with you, and it is going to come down to that extra [hardwork], that extra round in the gym, that extra day of sparring, who went that little bit more"