British boxer Maxi Hughes is confident in his ability to shock former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos.

Hughes, who holds the IBO championship at 135-pounds, will face Kambosos this Saturday night in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Their fight has been sanctioned as an IBF world title eliminator.

There is a mountain of pressure on Kambosos.

The former beltholder is coming off back to back defeats at the hands of undisputed champion Devin Haney. Both contests were mostly one-sided affairs in Haney's favor. He is also making his promotional debut for Top Rank.

Hughes is riding a seven fight win streak - which includes victories over Kid Galahad, Jono Carroll and Paul Hyland.

Despite their situations, Hughes is a tremendous underdog in the fight - but he feels the bout with Kambosos is coming at the perfect time.

He believes Kambosos will be battling mental demons in the contest, after suffering two bad defeats and going winless since the 2021 upset decision over Teofimo Lopez.

"I feel like I'm getting George at the right time," Hughes told Sporting News.

"I chose this fight. I reached out to him and it is a fight that I wanted. I'm very confident in myself. He's got those demons to exorcise - he's coming off two back-to-back losses and in 24 rounds he barely won one.

"He'll tell you he hasn't (got demons) because he's very egotistical and a very proud man but when he's not got his team around him, and he's in bed alone, he's got to battle those demons. He won't have his team around him to blow smoke up his backside and it's the same on fight night; it's just me and him in there."