Richardson Hitchins says his goal is to prove that he’s “levels above” Liam Paro when he challenges him for his IBF light welterweight title this Saturday, December 7th, at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, San Juan. Their 12-round headliner fight will be shown live on DAZN.
(Credit: Matchroom Boxing)
Questionable Tactics
IBF mandatory Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) wants to dominate Paro (25-0, 15 KOs) and not just beat him by a close margin. He wants total schooling for the Aussie.
Hitchins, 27, is concerned about the negative spoiling and roughhouse tactics that the southpaw Paro showed in his recent victory over IBF 140-lb champion Subriel Matias on June 15th in Manati, Puerto Rico.
Paro was overmatched in the offensive power and skills department against Matias, but he was able to get the victory by using these four things:
– Constant holding
– Shoving
– Moving
– Roughhouse tactics
The referee was just there in body only and doing nothing there, looking & disengaged from policing Paro’s tactics against Matias. This was surprising because Paro’s shoving, holding, and other questionable tactics should have resulted in warnings and point deductions, which would have tipped the scales to Matias’ side. In other words, Subriel would have won.
With the Paro-Hitchins fight being staged in Puerto Rico again, it’ll be interesting to see if the referee does anything to control the tactics Paro uses in the fight.
If Liam chooses to constantly hold, shove, and club Hitchins with punches to the back of his head, will the referee do anything about it or just stand around, vacant-eyed, taking up space in the ring for no useful purpose?
Hitchins will likely be well-prepared for Paro’s tricks and will not just let them happen without devising a strategy to negate them.
Richardson’s Goal To Dominate
“I was always calling Liam Paro’s name from the minute I signed with Matchroom. I signed with them at the same time. I’ll fight Liam Paro. I’ll fight Montana. It really doesn’t matter,” said Richardson Hitchins to Boxing News.
“Now that he’s got the world title. I just want to go out there and show I’m levels above Liam Paro. It’s not even to win a world title. If I win a world title by an inch, it won’t sit well with me, but it’s to go out there and separate myself to be the fighter that I know I am.
“I wouldn’t say that he won in a comfortable and dominant fashion. I think he won in a fashion where you know he won the fight. It wasn’t comfortable and it wasn’t dominant,” said Hitchins about Paro’s grueling 12-round unanimous decision win over IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias on June 15th in Manati, Puerto Rico.
Paro’s win over Matias was anything but comfortable. He was forced to hold, shove, and move to keep from getting knocked out by the IBF champion. Again, it would have been a different story if the referee had been on his JOB, warning & penalizing Paro.
I felt that Liam should have had three-point dissections in the fight, which would have changed the results dramatically and likely resulted in Matias knocking him out. Without the holding & shoving that Paro got away with, he would have been forced to either stand and fight or run. He wouldn’t have won the fight by moving. So, he would have had to fight Matias, which wouldn’t have ended well for him because he was getting pummeled during the exchanges.
“Liam came with a fundamental game plan. To move, to touch, to hit, hold, and do it through the whole fight [against Matias],” said Hitchins. “When he did start to break down mentally, he had his corner cheer him up. ‘You can do it,’ and he was already up on the scorecards. All he had to do is keep going and not give up. He got away with a lot of holding in that fight, and he was able to get away with a victory,” said Hitchins about Paro’s ugly, clinch-filled, moving and shoving win over Matias.
“When we get in there, we’ll see how his timing matches up against my timing,” said Hitchins.
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