George Campos Jr. controversially defeats Maxie Hughes

Australian lightweight George Campos Jr. (21-2-0, 10 KOs) is back to ways with a controversial majority decision victory over England’s Maxie Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs) in an overhead bout held Saturday at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

The judges voted 114-114, 117-111 and 115-113, a referee who was booed by those present in the ring, in favor of the former unified 135-pound champion, thus breaking the streak of two consecutive losses at the hands of the American Devin Haney, who also took the belts from him.

“We won the fight by several rounds,” Campassos Jr. justified moments after hearing the judges’ decision. “We will not underestimate him, he is a very tough fighter.”

With the win, the 30-year-old Australian boxer became a contender for the IBF lightweight belt and was assigned a lower title, the IBO 135-pound King.

“I’m devastated,” Hughes asserted as the crowd cheered him on. “I supposedly wasn’t in Kambosos Jr.’s league and went into the wolf’s den. My footwork was really good tonight. I hit the cleanest shots. I don’t want to be a sore loser, but people noticed what happened here today.”

The fight was completely intertwined. In the first half, the Englishman imposed his strategy by fighting on the counterattack, and punished Camposos’ mistakes mainly with the upper pass and the left cross. The Australian looked puzzled and the ghosts of his losses against Haney seemed to haunt the Oklahoma facility.

Kambosos, completely out of range, began to correct from the sixth round. He hit clean shots against a slightly steadier Hughes.

When it looked like the Australian was closing the gap, Hughes made amends and reverted to his original plan. The British boxer seemed to take a slight advantage to secure a fight or at least a draw. Unfortunately for him, the judges saw otherwise. Compubox stats show par for the contest that could be gone for either party.

Keyshawn Davis shines and continues to climb

In the combined feature, lightweight Keyshawn Davis (9-0-0, 6 KO’s) beat the challenger’s ladder when he delivered a 10-round unanimous decision to veteran Belgian Francesco Patera (28-4-0, 10 KO’s).

The judges’ vote of 100-89, 100-89 and 99-90 shows the clear dominance of the Americans.

“I gave myself a C or a B- tonight,” Davis said after the fight. “I always like to face people with experience. Today I learned from every round”

Davis, the 24-year-old and Olympic runner-up in Tokyo 2020, knocked out Patera, a 30-year-old veteran who had not lost since December 2017 and managed to string together a streak of ten wins, with a straight right hand in the eighth round.

After this victory, the American boxer should move up the rankings of the four organizations where he was in the top 15 before the fight: 8-WBO, 10-WBA, 12-IBF and 15-WBC.

Undercard results for July 22nd at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma

• George Campos Jr. G (DM-12/12) Maxie Hughes, 12 rounds, Kambosos wins IBO lightweight title

• Keyshawn Davis G (DU-10/10) Francesco Patera, lightweight

• Giovanni Santillan G (DU-10/10) Eric Boone, welterweight

• Stephen Shaw L (TKO-6/8) Joseph Goodall, Heavy

• Troy Easley G (DU-8/8) Antonio Todd, middleweight

• Amron Sands L (TKO-6/8) Hime ahiu, heavy

• Jeremiah Melton G (TKO-4/8) Willie Harvey, heavy