Maxi Hughes has heard and read all about George Kambosos Jr.’s desire to challenge Gervonta Davis or Vasiliy Lomachenko in higher-profile lightweight fights or to move up to the junior welterweight division for a rematch with Teofimo Lopez.

The English underdog isn’t sure whether that means Kambosos is overlooking him or, as Kambosos assured BoxingScene.com, he is fully focused on beating Hughes. Either way, Hughes is certain he will ruin Kambosos’ comeback Saturday night from back-to-back 12-round, unanimous-decision losses to undefeated, undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney.

“He talks about Lopez, he talks about Loma and [Gervonta] ‘Tank’ [Davis],” Hughes told BoxingScene.com. “I think he gets carried away until he realizes he’s got me standing in front of him. He’ll be a fool if he has underestimated me. You know, we’ll see on Saturday night whether that’s true or not.”

ESPN will broadcast Kambosos’ 12-round fight with Hughes as the main event of a doubleheader from FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The network’s telecast will begin at 10 p.m. EDT with a 10-round lightweight bout in which contender Keyshawn Davis (8-0, 6 KOs), an Olympic silver medalist from Norfolk, Virginia, will box Belgium’s Francesco Patera (28-3, 10 KOs).

Hughes (26-5-2, 5 KOs) will defend his IBO lightweight title against Australia’s Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs), a former IBF/WBA/WBO 135-pound champion. The winner of their IBF elimination match also will become its number two lightweight contender, which could lead to a fight for an unclaimed IBF belt against Argentina’s Gustavo Lemos (28-0, 18 KOs), the number one contender, if Haney vacates his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO crowns to compete in the 140-pound division.

The 33-year-old Hughes has won each of his seven fights since English southpaw Liam Walsh (23-1, 15 KOs) outpointed him unanimously in their 10-rounder in November 2019 in London. His loss to Walsh made Hughes take stock of his career, which the crafty lefty has entirely turned around over the past 3½ years.

Hughes has beaten two favored contenders during his winning streak – Irish southpaw Jono Carroll (24-2-1, 7 KOs) and England’s Kid Galahad (28-3, 17 KOs). He is confident that his adaptability and experience will also lead him to an upset of Kambosos, who is consistently listed as more than a 3-1 favorite.

“The last loss to Liam, I learned a lot from it,” Hughes said. “You know, I think Liam is probably the best kid I’ve fought as a professional. If he’d have fought anybody else other than Tank Davis for the world title, I believe he would’ve been a world champion. He was a very, very high operator. Once I lost that fight, I was obviously gutted, but I learned from it. And I had to take a long, hard look in the mirror and question myself. How much do I want this? Do I wanna carry on? And I said, ‘If I’m gonna carry on, you know, jump straight back in.’ And that’s what we did.

“I’ve had a few good opportunities during COVID, behind closed doors, in front of no fans, and I kept growing as a fighter. You know, it’s not just experience as a boxer, but getting older and wiser in life. You know, experience, and it’s all paid off and got me to this point. It doesn’t stop here. I very, very strongly believe I’m gonna get the job done on George. It’s just a steppingstone – get the job done on George and we go on to bigger, better fights.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.