For the second time this year, a new IBF super lightweight champion has emerged after Richardson Hitchins defeated Australian IBF 140-pound champion Liam Paro to become the new IBF champion of the division. The two main-evented on a Matchroom card held on Saturday, December 7th, at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Liam Paro vs. Richardson Hitchins
Liam Paro (25-1, 15 KO’s) only recently attained the IBF super lightweight (140 lbs) title after defeating previous IBF holder, Puerto Rican fighter Subriel Matias (21-2, 21 KO’s), in an upset victory last June.
American contender Richardson Hitchins (19-0, 7 KO’s) came in as an underdog following a dubious performance against Argentinian 140-pounder Gustavo Daniel Lemos (29-2, 19 KO’s) in April but churned out a surprise of his own as he defeated Paro over 12 rounds to become the new IBF super lightweight champion.
The earlier rounds were nip-tight, with Paro’s offense causing plenty of problems for the more conservative Hitchins, but this trajectory changed in the second half of the fight.
Coupled with his ring IQ, Hitchins’ backfoot approach during the fight largely stifled Paro’s attacks, giving the American plenty of room to counter which over the course of the bout became more prevalent and damaging. Despite Paro’s attempts to wade forward and his offensive arsenal, Hitchins fought a smart fight at range and mostly mitigated Paro’s punches while proving effective and efficient with his own.
CompuBox’s punch stats illustrate much of the aforementioned, with Hitchins clearly being more efficient while Paro appeared to struggle to be as accurate:
Following all 12 rounds, Richardson Hitchins was declared the winner by split-decision after scorecards of 116-112 twice and one 111-117 in favor of Liam Paro. The 111-117 scorecard, delivered by Puerto Rican judge Nelson Vazquez, was arguably the most contentious scorecards in the entire event and draws further questions as to his competence as a judge given Paro clearly lost most of the rounds.
Now Hitchins is the IBF 140-pound champion, there are multiple forks in the road for him going forward. With other world champions in the division aligned with other promotions, a unification fight in the near future appears unlikely, making it more feasible he will face a high-rated contender with former world champions such as Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KO’s) and Subriel Matias remaining viable options for the American champion given their familiarity fighting under Matchroom.
Undercard fights:
- American welterweight (147 lbs) prospect Jalil Hackett (9-1, 7 KO’s) suffered a surprising SD loss to Puerto Rican opponent Jose Roman Vazquez (14-1, 6 KO’s) as the two matched evenly in a 10-round fight that could have gone either way.
- American lightweight (135 lbs) contender Marc Castro (13-1, 8 KO’s) suffered from an identical result as Argentinian fighter Agustin Ezequiel Quintana (21-2-1, 13 KO’s) would also win their 10-round bout by split decision through scorecards of 97-93 twice, and a 94-96.
- At super featherweight (130 lbs), Puerto Rican contender Henry Lebron (20-0, 10 KO’s) coursed to a unanimous decision (UD) win over countryman Christopher Diaz-Velez (29-5, 19 KO’s).
- Puerto Rican prospect Yankiel Rivera Figueroa (7-0, 3 KO’s) also found success as he moved up the flyweight (112 lbs) rankings after handing American opponent Angel Gonzalez (14-1, 7 KO’s) his first loss through a stoppage victory.
