Richardson Hitchins called out Devin Haney after claiming a dominant win over George Kambosos Jr to retain his IBF light-welterweight title.<\/b><\/p>\n
The 27-year-old headlined a show in his hometown New York for the first time and stopped Kambosos with a left hook to the body in the eighth round.<\/p>\n
Hitchins was making his first defence of the title he earned by beating Liam Paro in December.<\/p>\n
He dominated throughout at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, landing a far greater number of blows than Kambosos, a former world champion at lightweight.<\/p>\n
After being floored in the eighth round, the Australian rose to his feet before the count of 10 but was still grimacing in pain and was unable to continue.<\/p>\n
Victory meant Hitchins extended his unbeaten record to 20-0, including eight knockouts.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been telling the boxing world I was coming and they should have listened,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I told his [Kambosos’] dad: ‘If you love your son, you’ll stop the fight.’ He was tough, a true competitor, but I was just the better man tonight.”<\/p>\n
Kambosos shocked Teofimo Lopez at the same venue in 2021 to become the unified lightweight champion.<\/p>\n
But the 32-year-old then lost back-to-back fights to Haney and has now lost four of his past six fights for a 22-4 record.<\/p>\n
Hitchins added: “I knew I had to go to some unsafe places to get some good shots off. I put myself in harm’s way.<\/p>\n
“He caught me with a couple of good shots, but they didn’t hurt me, so I just went for the [finish].”<\/p>\n
WBO champion Lopez entered the ring after the fight but Hitchins called out the unbeaten Haney, who moved up to welterweight to beat Jose Ramirez last month.<\/a><\/p>\n