IBF junior welterweight champ Richardson Hitchins was unable to compete Saturday night in Las Vegas, after making the IBF's secondary weigh in and becoming ill. We have more.
We're learning more on why Richardson Hitchins had to withdraw from his Saturday night title defense on the PPV undercard for the Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia main event in Las Vegas.
The unbeaten IBF 140 lb. champ was to have fought contender Oscar Duarte in a 12 round defense, but became ill after the secondary weigh-in Saturday morning required by the IBF.
Insider Dan Rafael reported on his Substack and on this recap podcast with me below that Hitchins was under the 10 additional lb. limit Saturday morning at the second weight check. However, he then became ill after eating breakfast at the MGM Grand hotel.
Hitchins manager Keith Connolly told Rafael that Hitchins vomited several times in the late morning and they weren't sure if it was after-effects of the re-hydration after the Friday weigh-in or bad food or a combination of both? But, his fighter was in no condition to fight and they notified all parties involved.
The 28-year-old Brooklyn native Hitchins is 20-0, 8 KOs, and was riding the momentum of a career-best performance back last June. That's when he dominated former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos, overwhelming him in an eighth-round stoppage. The emphatic win marked the first successful defense of Hitchins’ IBF junior welterweight title and set up the lucrative (seven figures purse) meeting with Duarte.
The Mexican Duarte is 30-2-1 with 23 KOs, has rebuilt his standing since an eighth-round knockout loss to Ryan Garcia in December 2023. He's responded with four straight victories, most recently earning a hard-fought majority decision over junior welterweight contender Kenneth Sims in August.
He's obviously the biggest "loser' in the situation, as he didn't get the chance at the world title, despite completing training, weight draining, making the Friday weight under 140 lb. and the second check Saturday morning under 150 lb.
Rafael further reported that Duarte will likely receive half of his scheduled purse under Nevada rules by the promoters Turki Alashikh and the Ring Magazine, etc., because he made the weight and the cancellation was no fault of his.
Rafael also believes that Hitchins will likely try to reschedule the defense, ASAP on an upcoming show, however, that's not a guarantee. Still, it's not likely that if this was a weight making issue, that he would chose to move up to welterweight.
Rafael said on the podcast debuting late Sunday night, "Richard Hitchins is a seven figures fighter as a world champion at 140 lb. If he moves up without a belt, he's 'just a guy' at 147 lb."