Richardson Hitchins is aiming to be the matador on Saturday night when he faces Oscar Duarte at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The bout will be Hitchins’ second title defense of his junior welterweight IBF belt.
Hitchins, 20-0 (8 KOs), has spent the past two weeks in Las Vegas away from his home in Brooklyn, New York, to close out camp. His team is confident in Hitchins’ abilities leading into this bout.
“This is the boxer versus the bull – the matador,” Lenny Wilson, Hitchins’ trainer, told BoxingScene. “I think it is a good fight for optics.”
Wilson believes this bout is a great opportunity for the 28-year-old Hitchins to announce himself as one of the world’s best fighters. After his eighth-round stoppage of former lightweight unified champ George Kambosos Jnr last June, Hitchins may be on the verge of entering rarified air.
Duarte, 30-2-1 (23 KOs), is coming into their fight on a four-fight win streak after being knocked out by Ryan Garcia in 2023. A 30-year-old from Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico, Duarte has also trained with Robert Garcia during his run. He won a majority decision over Kenneth Sims Jnr last August in his most recent bout, solidifying himself as a top contender.
“This is the fight to prove that his performance against George Kambosos wasn’t a fluke,” Wilson said. “This is going to show that he is the type of fighter that is supposed to be mentioned amongst the elites – the Shakur Stevensons, Devin Haneys, the Teofimo Lopezes, Terence Crawfords, those guys.”
The fight is also an opportunity to show that pressure fighters are not Hitchins’ kryptonite. In 2024, Hitchins turned in a shaky performance against Gustavo Lemos, winning by unanimous decision – but also appearing somewhat vulnerable. Since then, he has lifted the title off Liam Paro by split decision and made the successful defense against Kambosos.
“With the Lemos fight, he had a lot of stuff going on in his mind, which was like a distraction,” Wilson said. “That Lemos fight was a good fight to prepare him for this kind of fight.”
Duarte has a style similar to that of Lemos but is a more accomplished fighter. The matchup, which will serve as the co-feature to WBC welterweight titleholder Mario Barrios’ defense against Ryan Garcia, will be Hitchins’ second foray into facing a world-class pressure fighter.
“This kid has evolved,” Wilson said. “Duarte is not Lemos. They put on different pressure and mechanics.”
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
