DESPITE challenging for world honours on away soil, George Kambosos Jr expects to boast the lion’s share of support this Saturday.
The tenacious Aussie will take on IBF world super-lightweight champion Richardson Hitchins, headlining a Matchroom Boxing card at the Madison Square Garden Theater, New York.
But while the event – taking place inside the iconic venue’s smaller room – has been built around his opponent, Kambosos remains convinced that the fans at MSG are more intrigued by his own return.
His last outing in New York, after all, saw ‘Ferocious’ produce a stunning performance to dethrone Teofimo Lopez back in 2021.
The monumental upset arrived after both men picked themselves up from the canvas, making for an enthralling spectacle before Kambosos ultimately edged a split decision.
In doing so, the Sydney man became the unified world lightweight champion, only for back-to-back unanimous decision defeats against Devin Haney to end his reign soon after.
Since then, Kambosos has claimed just two victories – one, a highly-contentious majority decision over Maxi Hughes – while also suffering an 11th-round stoppage loss to masterful technician Vasyl Lomachenko.
Hitchins, meanwhile, secured his red and gold strap at 140lbs with a split decision victory – which, in truth, should have resulted in a much wider reflection – against Liam Paro last December.
But now, after becoming a world champion in Puerto Rico, the Brooklyn man looks to retain his belt with a successful homecoming this weekend.
At the same time, though, Kambosos firmly believes that his profile, and indeed his Greek-Australian heritage, is what should pull in the eyeballs.
“It’s supposed to be his [Hitchins’] big show, but I think more people are coming to support George Kambosos, because they’re excited that he’s coming back to New York,” the 31-year-old told Boxing News.
“There’ll be a lot of Aussies coming out to support me, but there’s also a lot of Greeks in New York.
“Hitchins is not a very well-liked guy in America. A lot of fighters don’t like him and a lot of the public don’t even know him. But the people who do know him don’t like him.
“He’s not the [ticket] seller; I’m the [ticket] seller in this fight. I know what my homecoming was like when I went back to Australia, so let’s see how his homecoming is.
“I [sold] 45,000 [tickets for the first Haney fight], whereas [Hitchins] might do around three or four thousand [tickets], maybe less.”
