Richardson Hitchins made a successful first defence of his IBF super lightweight title taking an eighth-round knockout win against former unified world lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) was crowned world champion last December in a split decision win against Liam Paro, while Kambosos (22-4, 10 KOs) moved up in weight to 140 pounds to outscore the inexperienced Jake Wyllie in March.
Sharp left hands and combinations saw the champion make a fast start, and he simply couldn’t miss the face of Kambosos in round two as several straight and accurate shots found the mark.
It was a one-sided affair, with round three seeing more dominance from the home favourite and the fourth displayed the ease with which he was operating, as he was prepared to just walk through his challenger.
A left hook to the body troubled the visitor in the fifth in what was a sign of things to come and after another a dominant round, the Brooklyn man found a solid right hand in round seven that shook the helpless 32-year-old, with the end of the bout in sight.
That conclusion came a round later, when Hitchins sunk a vicious left hand to the body of Kambosos, who folded on the canvas, where he was unable to beat the count to confirm a stunning performance from the 27-year-old.
Hitchins called for a clash with Devin Haney afterwards.
Cruz closes in on world title with stoppage win
The undercard saw Andy Cruz (6-0, 3 KOs) become mandatory challenger for Raymond Muratalla’s IBF lightweight title as he emphatically defeated Hironori Mishiro (17-2-1, 6 KOs) by fifth-round stoppage.
The gifted Cuban dominated the first four rounds and then put together a volley of spiteful, unanswered punches to force the referee’s intervention.
Remaining Undercard
Teremoana Teremoana was a first round winner again and the Australian heavyweight displayed his power against fellow unbeaten, Aleem Whitfield (9-1, 6 KOs).
Teremoana (8-0, 8 KOs) unloaded power shots in the corner, and the referee wisely called the contest off.
Nishant Dev (2-0, 1 KO) won all six rounds of his super welterweight six-rounder with Josue Silva (3-3, 1 KO).
In four-round affairs, super featherweight prospect Zaquin Moses (4-0, 3 KOs) took a final round stoppage win against Carl Rogers (3-3) and super bantamweight debutant, Adam Maca (1-0, 1 KO) stopped Rafael Castillo (2-7, 1 KO) in round two of their clash.
