Richardson Hitchins says he aims to prove he is “a level above” Liam Parro when he challenges him for the IBF light heavyweight title this Saturday, December 7, at Coliseo Roberto Clemente, San Juan. Their 12-man battle for the main player will be shown live on DAZN.
(Credit: Matchroom Booking)
Questionable tactics
IBF mandatory Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) wants to dominate Parra (25-0, 15 KOs), not just beat him by a narrow margin. He wants full Aussie schooling.
Hitchins, 27, is concerned about the negative spoiling tactics and roughness shown by southpaw Paro in his recent victory over the IBF 140lb champion Subriel Mathias June 15 in Manati, Puerto Rico.
Paro was outmatched in offensive power and skill against Mathias, but he was able to pull off a victory using these four things:
– Constant posture
– Pushing
– Movement
– Crude tactics
The judge was just there just the body and doing nothing there, watching and unengaged from Paro’s police tactics against Mathias. This was surprising as Parr’s pushing, holding and other questionable tactics should have resulted in a warning and points deduction, which would have tipped the scales in Matias’s favor. In other words, Subriel would win.
With the Paro-Hitchins fight once again taking place in Puerto Rico, it will be interesting to see if the referee does anything to control the tactics Paro uses in the fight.
If Liam decides to keep holding, shoving and hitting Hitchins with kicks to the back of the head, will the referee do something about it or will he just stand there, blank-eyed, taking up ring space to no useful purpose?
Hitchins will likely be well prepared for Parr’s tricks and won’t just let them happen without devising a strategy to negate them.
Richardson’s goal to dominate
“I’ve always called Liam Parro from the moment I signed to Matchroom. I signed with them at the same time. I’m going to fight Liam Parr. I’ll fight Montana. It really doesn’t matter,” Richardson Hitchins told Booking News.
“Now that he’s got the world title. I just want to go out there and show that I’m above Liam Parro. It’s not even to win the world title. If I win a world title by an inch, it won’t suit me, but it’s about going out there and separating myself to be the fighter that I know I am.
“I wouldn’t say he won in a comfortable and dominant way.” I think he won the way you know he won a fight. It wasn’t comfortable and it wasn’t dominant,” Hitchins said of Parr’s grueling 12-round unanimous decision victory over IBF light heavyweight champion Subriel Matias on June 15 in Manati, Puerto Rico.
The pair’s victory over Mathias was anything but pleasant. He was forced to hold, push and move to avoid being knocked out by the IBF champion. Again, it would have been a different story if the referee had been on his JOB, warning and punishing Paro.
I felt that Liam should have had three point dissections in the fight which would have changed the results dramatically and probably resulted in Matthias knocking him out. Without the hold and push that Paro got away with, he would have been forced to either stand and fight or run. He wouldn’t win the fight by moving. So he had to fight Matthias, which wouldn’t end well for him as he was getting punched during the exchange.
“Liam came in with a basic game plan. “Moving, touching, hitting, holding and doing it the whole fight (against Matthias),” Hitchins said. “When he started to break down mentally, his corner cheered him up.” “You can do it,” and he was already on the score sheet. All he had to do was keep going and not give up. He got away with a lot of poise in that fight, and he was able to come away with the win,” Hitchins said of Parr’s ugly, clinch, move victory over Matthias.
“When we get in there, we’ll see how his timing matches up with my timing,” Hitchins said.
