STEVE’S SOAPBOX
Richardson Hitchins vs. Oscar Duarte was called off at the 11th hour.
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gain 10 pounds, which was the limit. He looked healthy. He was smiling. He didn’t look sick Saturday morning.” Out of the four major sanctioning bodies, the IBF is the only one to conduct a second weigh-in for world title bouts where the boxers have to stay within a certain number of pounds above the division limit. Everyone agrees that Hitchins, who is big for the 140-pound division, complied with the rules. What took place before and afterward is where the sides diverge. “When I was told he was pulling out of the fight, I believe it was like 2 p.m., 3 p.m., something like that. They called me and told me that he was throwing up all night. So if a fighter is sick and throwing up all night, believe me, he’s not going to gain 10 pounds,” said Garcia, who pointed out that Duarte actually had to sweat off a bit of excess weight on Saturday morning. But Keith Connolly, Hitchins’ manager, vehemently denies this. “He threw up [after the second weigh- in],” Connolly told Ring Magazine. “He ate breakfast at the MGM, he threw up multiple times after. He didn’t throw up before the weigh-in.” The manager also made it clear that any reports of food poisoning are erroneous. “[Richardson] didn’t feel well after the breakfast,” said Connolly. “I’m not a doctor; I don’t know if it was a combination of the rehydration and food, or if it was the food, if he had a violent reaction to it, I have no idea. But what I do know is that he vomited a couple of times. We waited after the first time. We were hoping he would get better, and he vomited multiple times.” Connolly bristles at the criticism his fighter is taking for making the decision to not fight on the card. “Everyone pretends to be for ‘fighter safety,’ but then when something like this happens, then we have a problem with it. Should I have put my fighter in there after he was
WEIGHTY ISSUES By Steve Kim
T he IBF junior welterweight title tilt between defending beltholder Richardson Hitchins and Oscar Duarte was one of the most anticipated matchups on the undercard of the bout between Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia on February 21. Unfortunately, it didn’t take place. On the afternoon of the fight, Hitchins and his team made the decision to pull out of the contest, claiming illness after the IBF morning-of weigh-in had taken place. This left Duarte’s trainer, the normally good-natured Robert Garcia,
hot under the collar. “Look, I understand that there are fighters who do get sick, especially when the fighter is cutting weight. Their body is weaker than normal,” said Garcia, who himself was a world titleholder during his days inside the ring. “So they do get a cold. It happens to a lot of fighters. I was a boxer; it happened to me a couple of times.” He recalled, “[I was sick for] my fight against [Diego] Corrales, but I still fought. We’re fighters. I know that with Hitchins, we had a second-day weigh-in. I saw him step on the scale, I saw him
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