“Levels Above”: Hitchins vows to dominate Paro

Richardson Hitchins says his goal is to prove he is “levels above” Liam Paro when he challenges him for his IBF light welterweight title this Saturday, December 7, at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, San Juan. Their 12-round head-to-head fight will be shown live on DAZN.

(Credit: Matchroom Boxing)

Questionable tactics

IBF mandated Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) wants to dominate Paro (25-0, 15 KOs) and not just beat him by a short distance. He wants total schooling for the Aussie.

Hitchins, 27, is concerned about the negative spoiling and roughhouse tactics shown by southpaw Paro in his recent victory over the IBF 140-lb champion. Subriel Mathias on June 15 in Manati, Puerto Rico.

Paro was up against Matias in the offensive power and skills department, but he was able to pull off the win using these four things:

– Holding constant
– Move
– Move
– Roughhouse tactics

The referee was right in there body only and nothing does there, look & disconnect of policing Paro’s tactics against Matias. This was surprising because Paro’s shoving, holding and other questionable tactics should have resulted in warnings and points deductions, which would have tipped the scales in Matias’s favor. In other words, Subriel would have won.

With the Paro-Hitchins fight taking place once again 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 chooses to constantly hold Hitchins down, push him and stick him in the back of the head with punches, will the referee do anything about it or just stand around blankly and take up space in the ring for no useful purpose?

Hitchins will probably be well prepared for Paro’s tricks and won’t just let them happen without devising a strategy to negate them.

Richardson’s goal to dominate

“I always mentioned Liam Paro’s name from the moment I signed with Matchroom. I signed with them at the same time. I will fight Liam Paro. I will fight with Montana. It really doesn’t matter,” Richardson Hitchins told Boxing News.

“Now that he has the world title. I just want to go out there and show I’m levels above Liam Paro. It’s not even winning a world title. If I win a world title by an inch, it won’t sit well with me, but it’s about going out there and separating myself to be the fighter that I know I am.

“I wouldn’t say that he won in a comfortable and dominant way. I think he won in a way where you know he won the fight. It wasn’t comfortable and it wasn’t dominant,” Hitchins said of Paro’s grueling 12-round unanimous decision victory over IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias on June 15 in Manati, Puerto Rico.

Paro’s victory over Matias was anything but comfortable. 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 and warned and penalized Paro.

I felt Liam should have had three point dissections in the fight, which would have changed the results dramatically and probably led to Matias knocking him out. Without the punching and shoving Paro got away with, he would have been forced to either stand and fight or run. He wouldn’t have won the fight by moving. So, he would have to fight Matias, which would not have ended well for him as he got bumped during the exchanges.

“Liam came with a fundamental game plan. To move, touch, hit, hold and do that throughout the fight (against Matias),” Hitchins said. “When he did start to break down mentally, his corner cheered him 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 came away with a lot of holds in that fight, and he was able to come away with a win,” Hitchins said of Paro’s ugly, resounding, moving and pushing victory over Matias.

“When we get in there, we’ll see how his timing matches up with my timing,” Hitchins says.