Richardson Hitchins has vacated his IBF 140lbs crown.
Richardson Hitchins (20-0, 8ko’s) was one half of a double signing announcement for Zuffa Boxing and Dana White.
The sports newest major promotion have declared to ‘revolutionise a broken sport’, and unsurprisingly, these comments have not gone down well with existing parties.
At first the plans were to create a Zuffa league, disregarding the existing governing bodies, and replicating their UFC model but in the sport of boxing.
Whilst signings like Conor Benn (25-1, 14ko’s), Jai Opetaia (30-0, 23ko’s) and now Richardson Hitchins and Edgar Berlanga (23-2, 18ko’s) have been impressive, it’s fair to say there is work to do to compete with the sports leading promotions.
Zuffa’s highest profile event thus far was Jai Opetaia vs Brandon Glanton for the inaugural Zuffa title.
Opetaia is widely considered as the sports leading cruiserweight.
However, the fight week was filled with controversy between Zuffa and the IBF, and Opetaia was subsequently stripped of his IBF title.
Alarm bells were ringing when Hitchins signed with Zuffa, and questions were raised as to whether Hitchins would also be stripped.
However, the man from Brooklyn’s manager Keith Connolly has revealed to The Ring that Hitchins has vacated his IBF super-lightweight title.
Connolly, who also manages Berlanga and Conor Benn stated: “It was a tough decision for Hitchins, but he’s outgrown the weight class; he’s been fighting at 140 since he was 16 as an amateur,”
“Hitchins is an elite fighter and I truly believe he’ll be even better and stronger at welterweight and that he will be fighting for a world title at 147 in the next 12 months”.
The most intriguing part of this statement is that Hitchins intends to fight for a welterweight world title in the next 12 months.
Whether this means Zuffa are withdrawing their plans to disregard governing bodies is yet to be seen.
Could Zuffa and Dana White become a more traditional boxing promotion?
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