Junior welterweight contender Richardson Hitchins 17-0 (7) insists he wouldn’t hesitate to accept a fight with IBF champion Subriel Matias 20-1 (20) if he was offered the chance.
The 26-year-old New York slickster returns to action on Saturday night in a final eliminator for Matias’ crown when he takes on 28-year-old Argentinean Gustavo Lemos 29-0 (19) Fontainebleau Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada live on DAZN.
Puerto Rico’s Matias, 32, is set to make a homecoming defence against Australia’s Liam Paro 24-0 (15) at the Coliseo Juan Aubin Cruz Abreu in Manati on June 15. Hitchins plans to be ringside for that bout.
The winner of Hitchins versus Lemos will be in the box seat to challenge the victor of that bout.
“I am not going to lie, I do prefer the WBC route – but if the opportunity presents itself for the world title and on Saturday I feel good, why not the IBF?” said Hitchins.
“It’s a big fight with me and Subriel Matias, everyone would be interested in that, so let’s see what comes to the table.
“I have a fight to focus on, [WBC champion] Devin [Haney] has a fight to focus on, I’ve got a tough Argentinian in front of me and things that I have to go out and do.
“I want to show on Saturday what I’ve always been showing; that I am a great fighter, a dominant fighter. I’ve shown that time and again, it’s the same old story. People say that it’s going to be a tough fight for me, they’ll be surprised if I can make it look easy, but then I go out there and do that again and again.
“If I am in a tough fight with someone that’s never been in with anyone of the caliber of me, imagine what type of fight it’s going to be for the guy fighting me. Boxing is all about distance and timing, knowing what shots to pick, where to be, it’s a sweet science and I think I am one of the young masters of it.
“Everybody had a lot of shit to talk about my last fight against Jose Zepeda so no-one should miss this one because the fans have made me put on not a dominant performance, because I’ve already done that, but a punishing dominant performance.
“I can’t let Lemos get away with any mistakes, any mistakes he makes, he’s got to pay. I feel like this is going to be another performance like John Bauza, it’s going to show that you put a guy in front of me that isn’t at the top of the sport, period, I’ll show his levels.
“I don’t know much about him so I can’t say if this is the toughest test of my life. I’ve been at the high level for a long, long time, since the amateurs and moved in the pro ranks where I’ve had to prove myself early.
“Zepeda talked about experience before our fight, but I told him, I have experience. People were building up the fight because he’d fought for the World title three times, but I had already beaten a world champion, a guy that had done what Zepeda was trying to do.
“So when people were saying that it was going to be a tough test, when I got in there on September 23, he was one of the easiest fights of my career that I can remember, from pro debut to now.
“That’s a testimony to how much I’ve grown as a professional and a fighter, I made that fight clearly easy, so we’ll see what happens with Lemos, he’s a guy that hasn’t fought anyone with any craft or skills, so when he gets in there with me, it’s going to be a whole different ballgame because he’s not just that he’s going up in levels, he’s fighting one of the best young boxers in the sport – period.
“When you get in the ring with me it’s way different from standing in front of anyone else and he’ll see that.
“He’s tough, he’s Argentinian, he’s going to try have his way but it’s my job to neutralize that. I can be anything I need to be to be victorious on the night.”