Two prominent American championship fighters, Richard Hitchins and Gary Antuanne Russell, will defend their world titles in separate bouts on the Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia PPV undercard in February.
The Mario Barrios–Ryan Garcia PPV showdown was officially announced eariler this week for Monday for February 21st at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. And now, the rest of the card that will support the DAZN pay-per-view event is also lining up.
While promoters have yet to formally announce the full undercard, multiple sources have indicated to insider Dan Rafael of his Fight Freaks Unite Substack and the Big Fight Weekend Podcast that several high-profile junior welterweight bouts are expected to be part of the pay per view.
Among the fights slated for the event, according to sources speaking to Rafael, is a championship defense by current IBF junior welterweight titleholder Richardson Hitchins. The 28 year old, unbeaten Brooklyn native has a record of 20-0 with 8 KOs and is coming off one of the best performances of his career. Back in June, Hitchins delivered a dominating performance against former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos stopping him in the eighth round in a one-sided affair.
Watch Hitchins' performance here:
That victory marked Hitchins’ first title defense of the IBF 140 lb. belt, and now, his second defense has an opponent.
Mexico’s Oscar Duarte, a rugged contender with a 30-2-1 record and 23 KOs, has rebuilt some momentum, since suffering an eighth-round knockout loss to the guy on the main event, Ryan Garcia in December 2023. Duarte has since rattled off four consecutive wins, most recently earning a majority decision over fellow junior welterweight contender Kenneth Sims in August.
Also expected to appear on the card, according to Rafael's reporting, is a long-delayed title match-up between WBA junior welterweight champion Gary Antuanne Russell and mandatory challenger Andy Hiraoka. The 29 year old Russell is from Capitol Heights, Maryland, and owns an imposing 18-1 record with 17 KOs. Meanwhile, Hiraoka, who is also 29, remains unbeaten at 24-0 with 19 KOs against mostly nondescript competition.
The Russell-Hiraoka bout was originally scheduled for the undercard of the Jake Paul–Gervonta Davis exhibition that was to have been on November 14th in Miami. However, once that event was canceled and Paul later faced Anthony Joshua in December instead, their title fight was left off the revised show and not rescheduled. So, If confirmed, the Russell-Hiraoka match-up would finally bring resolution to one of the division’s most overdue mandatory title defenses.
It's also not hard to put together that by having Hitchins and Russell defend their 140 lb. titles separately on the same card that there is obvious appeal and negotiation to be had, if they both win, about a subsequent Hitchins-Russell main event in 2026.