George Kambosos’ majority decision win over Maxi Hughes has sparked widespread outrage across the boxing world, with many feeling the Australian was fortunate to get the victory in Oklahoma this past weekend.
Hughes landed eight more punches than Kambosos over the twelve rounds, despite throwing 133 less. However, his efforts were not rewarded by any of the three ringside judges, with Josef Mason’s 117-111 scorecard in particular coming under heavy criticism.
Former world champion Tim Bradley was working at the event as analyst for ESPN, and told Fight Hub TV that Hughes was “robbed bad.”
“Hughes got robbed, I’m talking bad. It was terrible, Kambosos got outboxed. There was nothing he could do, he didn’t know how to close the distance.”
“I didn’t score the fight, but I know that Hughes was dominating.”
Hughes was riding the crest of the wave coming into the fight at the Firelake Arena in Shawnee, having won his last seven bouts, despite being an underdog in many of them.
That was also the case on Saturday night, with former unified world champion Kambosos a clear bookmakers’ favourite and was tipped by most pundits to be a level above the Brit.
However, Hughes’ boxing made a mockery of that notion, despite the fact he will not have his name in the win column in the record books to prove it.
As expected, ‘Ferocious’ has stated he felt he was a comfortable winner and does not understand the controversy, and claims he wants to take on the likes of Gervonta Davis or Vasiliy Lomachenko next.
He also engaged in some back and forth with Shakur Stevenson, who was ringside in Oklahoma and told Kambosos he will “beat the s*** out of him.”