Richardson Hitchins’ manager Keith Connolly has confirmed the welterweight is targeting traditional sanctioning body titles despite a move to Zuffa Boxing.
Hitchins inked a multi-fight deal with Zuffa back in April and also announced that he had vacated his IBF junior welterweight strap. Though it has softened since, Zuffa initially made their stance clear: They would not be working with or recognizing the traditional sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF) and would only recognize The Ring title or their own Zuffa belt.
With Hitchins choosing to let go of his IBF strap it seemed as though he too would only be fighting for a Zuffa belt.
However, Connolly revealed that is not the case. He said the aggressive weight cut that led to Hitchins pulling out of his scheduled title defense against Oscar Duarte in February was the indicator that his time at 140lbs was over.
“Hitchins gave up the title really because he just outgrew the weight class,” Connolly told BoxingScene. “I mean, he was literally dying after making the weight twice against Duarte, and we were still going to fight, and then he started puking after he ate breakfast that day, after the second weigh-in.
“He violently puked, I think it was like three or four times. So we were put in a position where we didn’t want to pull out of the fight the day of the fight, but we had to. So it might look like we dropped the belt because we went to Zuffa, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth.
“We actually had in his contract that he could keep [his title] and defend it. So, yeah, he will be looking to win titles going forward.”
Connolly also revealed that Hitchins maintains a strong position with the IBF and after Liam Paro’s victory over Lewis Crocker for the welterweight title he may be in line for a shot soon.
“He’s No. 3 in the IBF right now at 147lbs,” he said. “We petitioned the IBF since we were champion at 140lbs to put us high. Paro [was] No. 2, so we’ll basically be number two.”
