By Dan Ambrose: Richardson Hitchins (17-0, 7 KOs) put the Caribe Royale crowd to sleep with a cautious, safety-first performance on Saturday night, beating Jose Zepeda (37-4,28 KOs) by a twelve round unanimous decision in Orlando, Florida.
Hitchins used a lot of movement, jabs, and single right hands to dominate a timid 34-year-old Zepeda, controlling every round to win by the scores 120-108, 120-108, and 119-109.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has been talking all week about how Hitchins is a superstar in the making, but he’s likely having second thoughts about that after watching this sleep-inducing performance from him tonight.
Hitchins was really boring tonight, taking chances and clinching Zepeda each time came close to him. It would have been more entertaining for the fans if Hitchins had fought Zepeda on the inside rather than grabbing him or running away.
Conor Benn defeats Rodolfo Orozco
In the chief support bout, Conor Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) stole the show from Hitchins by winning an exciting, action-packed 10 round unanimous decision over Rodolfo Ortozco(32-4-3, 24 KOs) in a fight at 154.
Fighting for the first time in a year and a half, Benn connected with a lot of big shots on Orozco but was unable to put him away.
Orozco walked through everything that Benn threw, putting huge pressure on him and landing many body shots and a fair amount of headshots. In the later rounds, Orozco faded and took a lot of hard punches from Benn.
The scores were 99-91, 99-91, and 96-94.
Benn hadn’t fought since last year in April. He’s now expected to move up to middleweight to face Chris Eubank Jr. next on PPV. That’s likely to be a one-off for Benn, as he’s unlikely to stay at 160 and fight for a world title.
In the later rounds, Benn looked tired and moved a lot to keep out of the way of Orozco. Benn still landed a lot of hard potshots, but he wasn’t as active as he’d been earlier.
Sandy Ryan & Jessica McCaskill fight to a draw
Female welterweight champions Sandy Ryan (6-1-1, 2 KOs) and Jessica McCaskill (12-3-1,5 KOs) fought to a 10-round draw. Both thought they won the fight, but the judge saw it differently, scoring it as follows:
- 97-93 – McCaskill
- 96-94 – Ryan
- 95-95
In an entertaining middleweight fight, Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams (15-0, 10 KOs) fought his way to a 10 round unanimous decision over Steve Rolls (22-3, 12 KOs). Rolls, 39, looked early, but Williams came on late to take it.
Williams showed a lot of flaws on defense, and he’s going to need to improve in that area for him to have a chance of beating any of the champions at 160.
The judges had it 97-93, 97-93, and 97-93.
