A young champion and a gifted challenger displayed skills Saturday night that could lead both to extended days wearing a championship strap belted around their waist.
The question that remains is how deeply that can be known from what transpired in the respective bouts of IBF junior welterweight titleholder Richardson Hitchins, 27, and Cuba’s IBF lightweight mandatory challenger Andy Cruz, 29.
By stopping former lightweight champion George Kambosos Jnr at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Hitchins, now 20-0 (8 KOs), flirted with WBO and lineal junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez Jnr and former two-division champion Devin Haney as possible future opponents.
In the aftermath, however, Hitchins made a public point that he’s now a promotional free agent. His most recent promoter through the Kambosos fight, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, said it will take the interest and investment of Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh to make either bout happen due to Lopez’s and Haney’s purse demands.
“I struggle to figure out how Kambosos got to this level,” former junior welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi said on Monday’s episode of ProBox TV’s BoxingScene Today. “When I watch guys fight, I can usually get a gauge of their game plan, can see what they’re thinking. … I don’t know what the fuck this guy was doing!
“He had no movement, no reflexes,” Malignaggi said. “I would lose sleep over the rest of my life if I’m Teofimo Lopez.”
Kambosos dealt Lopez his only loss in 2021, and Kambosos has since gone on to lose two title fights to Devin Haney, another to the since-retired Vasiliy Lomachenko, and now this title bout with Hitchins.
“Hitchins threw two left hooks to the body – one hurt [Kambosos], the other knocked him out [in the eighth round],” ProBox TV analyst and former junior welterweight titleholder Chris Algieri said.
Returning trainer of the year Robert Garcia added: “Kambosos is a basic guy who talked his way into big fights.”
Hitchins is without a promoter now – although Hearn expressed interest in remaining on the job. Hitchins and his manager, Keith Connolly, step into the fray of drawing Alalshikh’s interest and finding a lucrative bout.
The next title fight at 140lbs will see WBC beltholder Albert Puello defend July 12 against Subriel Matias, a former IBF titleholder himself who lost to Liam Paro, who then lost to Hitchins. Matias is the IBF’s top-ranked contender.
Hitchins “is very good … he showed 30% of what he can do,” Algieri said.
Garcia was impressed, calling Hitchins “the real deal,” and “here to last … great job, comes forward, uses distance, knows what he’s doing.”
As for Andy Cruz, his fifth-round TKO over Hironori Mishiro in the co-feature bout on Saturday has put him in position for a title shot. That would be against one of Garcia’s fighters, new IBF titleholder Raymond Muratalla, who was upgraded from his interim belt after Lomachenko retired.
“He’s looking very sharp. … We have to be ready,” Garcia said. “We believe we have the fighter to beat him, but Andy Cruz is a great fighter.”
Algieri praised Cruz’s developing power and his ability to entertain, as the Olympic gold medalist cracked in the ring that he was disappointed he hadn’t received a Father’s Day phone call from his “son” – the stripped, overweight former WBO lightweight titleholder Keyshawn Davis, whom Cruz, now 6-0 (3 KOs), defeated for the gold medal in the 2021 Games.
Muratalla, 23-0 (17 KOs), could move to take one optional defense and/or wait to meet the winner of the WBO title bout between Top Rank stablemate Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes, or he could go right at Cruz.
With Muratalla’s 113 pro rounds to Cruz’s 45, Malignaggi said it might be in Cruz’s best interest to take one more fight before the title shot that will otherwise be required within less than nine months.
“Andy Cruz is moving with flying colors, but is Muratalla a bridge too far?” Malignaggi asked.