Eddie Hearn says it should be easier to line up fights for Richardson Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) after he captured the IBF light welterweight title from champion Liam Paro (25-1, 15 KOs) with a 12-round split decision last Saturday night at Coliseo Roberto Clemente, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Hitchins took four rounds to solve Paro’s style and then picked him apart from the fifth round on. The southpaw Paro looked wary about attacking Hitchins in the second half of the fight because he was getting nailed by his lightning-fast right hands when he attacked. The judges scored 117-111 for Paro, 116-112, and 116-112 for Hitchins. It’s unclear what the judge was thinking that scored it 117-111 for Paro, as that made no sense for the fight. It was an embarrassment.
Now that Hitchins holds the IBF title, Hearn’s job should be easier. Still, he’ll likely continue to be avoided because his Shakur fighting style makes him a nightmare. Hearn’s lukewarm reaction to Hitchins’ win afterward suggests that he knows it will continue to be difficult for him to line up the big names to fight him. Hearn mentioned Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez as guys he’d like to match against Hitchins next. The odds of any of those guys agreeing to fight him are doubtful.
“It might be Jack Catterall or some other guy. We have to wait,” said Richardson Hitchins at the post-fight press conference after defeating Liam Paro last Saturday night. “I didn’t expect him to be so crafty. It was like I was boxing a young guy,” said Hitchins about Paro. “I didn’t expect his skills to be like that. He’s smart. He was bouncing in and out. The way he boxed tonight, you have to have a lot of skills and experience to box a guy like that. He’ll pick a lot of guys apart like that,” said Hitchins.
Paro changed his fighting style completely for this fight, compared to how he had fought Subriel Matias in his previous contest on June 15th. He was a different person for this bout, and didn’t work well for Paro using that new style. At the post-fight press conference, Hitchins compared Paro’s style to that of former WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov, which is exactly how he fought. “He’s a guy that a lot of people will avoid. So, it’s been very difficult for us. We took him on, we got him active, and headlining twice. Once against [Jose] Zepeda and once against [Gustavo] Lemos,” said promoter Eddie Hearn about Hitchins. “Now, he’s got the belt and becomes the hunted. No one wanted to fight him before.”
Hearn has done a great job of getting fights for Hitchins since he signed him to Matchroom, but he’s still going to have a difficult time getting the matches he needs for him to become a star. Without Turki Alalshikh’s involvement, Hitchins is going to be avoided and treated like an undesirable by the top fighters, Haney, Ryan and Teofimo Lopez. “The belt is very important for a guy like Richardson because it’ll help us make those fights now. No one can say, ‘Why would I fight Richardson Hitchins?’ The answer is that you’re now fighting for a world championship,” said Hearn. It would be interesting to know if Hearn was serious about his belief that fighters would want to fight Hitchins because I don’t believe it for a second.
“I already got my lawyer on it,” said Teofimo Lopez to Fighthype when asked if he’d be interested in fighting Richardson Hitchins next. “We want everybody. We can do it at the Barclays unless MSG wants it. I love the Garden.” Teofimo showed up at the Paro vs. Hitchins fight to call out Richardson, as he did with several other fighters. It appeared that this was just a clout-chasing expedition for Teo to keep his name in the limelight. The reality is that Teofimo is a fading fighter who hasn’t been the same since his loss to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021.
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