Richardson Hitchins says his goal is to show he is “level above” Liam Paro when he challenges for his IBF light welterweight title this Saturday, December 7 at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, San Juan. Their 12-round headline 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 narrow margin. He wants a full school for the Aussie.
Hitchins, 27, is concerned about the negative spoiling and roughhouse tactics the southpaw Paro displayed in his recent win over the IBF 140-lb champion. Subriel Mathias on June 15 in Manati, Puerto Rico.
Paro was outmatched in the offensive power and skills department against Matias, but he was able to pull off the win by using these four things:
– Constant maintenance
– Push
– Movements
– Roughhouse tactics
The referee was right there body alone and do nothing here, search & disengaged from the tactical police of Paro against Matias. This was surprising, as Paro’s pushing, holding and other questionable tactics should have resulted in warnings and points deductions, tipping the scales in Matias’ favor. In other words, Subriel would have won.
With the Paro-Hitchins fight taking place again in Puerto Rico, it will be interesting to see if the referee does anything to control the tactics that Paro uses in the fight.
If Liam chooses to hold, he constantly pushes and mauls Hitchins with punches to the back of his head, will the referee do something or just stand around, blank-eyed, taking up space in the ring to no useful purpose?
Hitchins will likely be well prepared for Paro’s tricks and won’t let them happen without devising a strategy to negate them.
Richardson’s goal to dominate
“I’ve always called 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 doesn’t really matter,” Richardson Hitchins told Boxing News.
“Now that he has the world title. I just want to go out there and show that I’m levels above Liam Paro. It’s not even about winning a world title. If I win a world title by an inch, it doesn’t sit well with me, but it’s to go out and separate to be the fighter that I am.
“I wouldn’t say he won in a comfortable, dominant fashion. I think he won in a fashion where you knew he won the fight. He wasn’t comfortable and he wasn’t dominant,” Hitchins said of the grueling victory by Paro in 12 rounds by unanimous decision over IBF welterweight champion Subriel Matias on June 15 in Manati, Puerto Rico.
Paro’s win over Matias was very comfortable. He was forced to hold, push, and move to avoid being knocked down by the IBF champion. Again, it would have been a different story if the referee had been on his JOB, warning and penalizing Paro.
I feel that Liam should have had three point dissections in the fight, which would have changed the results dramatically and probably resulted in Matias knocking him out. Without the tenacity and drive that Paro got out of it, he would have been forced to stand and fight or run. I wouldn’t have won the fight by moving. Then, he would have had to fight Matias, which would not have ended well for him because he would have slipped during the exchanges.
“Liam came in with a fundamental game plan. To move, touch, hit, hold, and do it for the whole fight (against Matias),” said Hitchins. “When he started to break down mentally, he had his corner to step up. ‘You can do it,’ and he was already on the scorecards. All he had to do was keep going and not give up. He got away with a lot hold in that fight, and he was able to run away with a win,” Hitchins said of Paro’s ugly, clinch-filled, move-and-push victory over Matias.
“When we get in there, we’ll see how his timing matches up with my timing,” Hitchins said.
