Promoters won’t pay Hitchins – ‘No fans yet’

Teofimo Lopez says the money Richardson Hitchins asked to fight him is the promoters and networks “not willing to give him” because he doesn’t have a big enough “fanbase”. Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) hasn’t built enough of a name for himself to command the money he wants. Lopez did not say how much Hitchins is charging to face him.

Teofimo calls out Hitchins’ demands

Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) says he’ll do his part to “build buzz” for a fight against Hitchins, but it’s not up to him if the fight happens.

Hitchins recently defeated the winner of the Devin Haney vs. Brian Norman Jr. called out fight and said he’ll move up to 147 whoever steps out. None of these fighters showed any interest in accepting his offer.

Names He Avoids

The problem is that Brooklyn, New York native Richardson, 28, has only fought two notable opponents in his eight-year career, George Kambosos Jr. and Liam Paro. He has to take some risks by fighting the top 140-pounders who called him out. These fighters:

• Gary Antoine Russell
• Ernesto Mercado
• Subriel Matias
• Keyshawn Davis
• Jamaine Ortiz

Some of these guys have an excellent chance of defeating Hitchins. So it’s understandable why he didn’t pull the trigger when faced with one of them. But these are fighters that will increase Hitchins popularity if he is willing to take a risk. He’s not going to be able to take a backdoor route to mega-millions against the likes of Kambosos Jr.

IBF light welterweight champion Hitchins needs to be in 50-50 fights or fights where he is the underdog.

Promoters don’t bite the price tag

“It’s a possibility. It’s just the fact that Hitchins wants X amount of money which promoters at networks aren’t willing to give him yet because he needs to build that fanbase around him. He has to build that noise,” Teofimo Lopez told the 10-8 Podcast about what prevented him and Richardson Hitchins from fighting.

Hitchins’ safe route exposed

• George Kambosos Jr.
• Liam Paro
• Gustavo Daniel Lemos
• Joseph Zepeda
• John Bauza
• Yomar Alamo

These are not big enough names for Richardson Hitchins to build a large fan base. Hitchins tries to put the cart before the horse by looking for big fights while bypassing the risky build matches he must first take to build a fan base. It wouldn’t take long for Richardson to work himself up to the point where he was a big enough name to get matches against Teofimo, Haney and Norman Jr. to get if he faces the top 140-pounders.

That’s if he is exterminated by them, what can happen. Mercado, Antuanne Russell, Keyshawn, Matias and Jamaine would be brutal battles for Hitchins.

“I can bring that star power out of my mind. I’ll try my best in the press conferences to get people involved with it. It’s come down to a business. It hasn’t come down to, ‘I want to fight you.’ “Okay, let’s fight. Let’s pound it out. Let’s show the world.’ It’s now more about business for everyone,” said Teofimo.