Fifty-one years ago, Fred Shero scribbled the words, “Win today and we walk together forever,” on a chalkboard in the Philadelphia Flyers’ locker room. The Flyers needed one more victory that night to claim the Stanley Cup — and they got it.
Even now—half a century since their last championship—his “Broad Street Bullies” remain one of hockey’s most iconic teams.
Boxing doesn’t work that way.
It hands out belts like Vegas casinos hand out comp drinks. Sit at a blackjack table long enough and you’ll never have to pay for a drink, a meal or a room again.
The value of a championship in boxing isn’t the same as winning a Stanley Cup or Super Bowl ring. There are 17 weight classes in the IBF and the WBO and 18 in the WBA and WBC. That means there are potentially 70 different champions at any one time.
The value of a world title belt in boxing is diluted by the sheer number of them available.
To outsiders, that’s a seemingly small distinction, but in boxing, there are champions, and there are title-holders.
Fighters with the right promoter, the right opponent, or the right timing become title-holders. They’re fighters who can call themselves world champions, but will never be remembered as such.
Before we move on, let’s try a quick quiz:
What do Adolpho Washington, Slobodan Kacar, Alejandro Berrio, Sam Soliman, Michele Piccirillo and Joe Manley have in common?
All of them were once IBF world champions.
Good luck finding 100 boxing fans who could tell you that.
Richardson Hitchins, 27, is an unbeaten IBF junior welterweight world champion who competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics at just 18.
But how many people attending his title defense Saturday against George Kambosos Jr. at Madison Square Garden could pick him out of a lineup?
The last thing Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) wants is to be lumped with Washington, Kacar, Berrio — forgotten by history as just another nameless, faceless “world champion.”
If trash talking were a prerequisite for being a great champion, Hitchins would be at the top of the list. He’s a slick boxer with speed and agility, but he’s done little to this point that makes him stand out from the crowd.
Kambosos upset Teofimo Lopez (the Ring Magazine champion right now at 140) and faced Vasiliy Lomachenko and Devin Haney. Hitchins has never fought anyone remotely as good as those three.
That didn’t stop him from acting as if he were an established superstar. Physically, he’s got the tools to be an elite champion. But despite his gaudy red title belt, he’s essentially no different than one of Baseball America’s ubiquitous top prospects.
“What does he do so good that he thinks I’ve never seen?” Richardson said. “Is it the power, the activity, the pressure, the speed, the twitch? You don’t know what I do best. I’m different. I’m just going to show him levels. You will feel me, it’s something different, when I hit you, you are going to feel it.
“You can’t outfight me. We can stand in the middle of the ring, [and] you can’t outfight me. I promise you everything I love, we stand in the middle of the ring and bang, you can’t outfight me.”
If he lives up to his words and fights that way, he might take his game to the next level and guarantee he’ll never be linked with the hundreds of anonymous title-holders who paraded around with belts through the years.
He’s made his career fighting off the back foot, flicking punches while moving away and rarely standing toe-to-toe and trading.
He’s got to do what will give him the best chance to win, but his words ring hollow since he’s never fought like that against a world-class opponent.
Count Kambosos among the skeptics.
Geoffrey Knott/Matchroom
Richardson Hitchins shows off his IBF junior welterweight belt.
“I’ve fought champion after champion, pound-for-pound fighters, Hall of Famers,” Kambosos (22-3, 10 KOs) said. “Forget the zero in boxing. I’ve been saying it constantly, it doesn’t matter any more in boxing.
“People said to me, ‘You’ve got the belts. Take an easy fight, a tune-up, pick who you want.’ But I went straight into the fire. I think he’s a good fighter, but he’s not them. From the fights I’ve seen, I just don’t see it. He won’t dominate this time.”
The oddsmakers are expecting Hitchins to dominate. He’s a 12-1 favorite to win. Kambosos is +1200 to win by KO or TKO and +1800 to win by decision. That means, if a bettor wagers $100 on Kambosos by decision, he’ll make an $1,800 profit if he wins by points.
A $1,200 bet on Hitchins to win returns just a $100 profit.
At those odds, merely winning isn’t enough. Hitchins needs to win impressively, and show, as both Lomachenko and Haney did, that Kambosos isn’t in his league.
No one is asking him to be the next Arturo Gatti, but they’d prefer he not do his best Usain Bolt impression, either.
“People say ‘Hitchins’ runs,’ ” he said. “I don’t gotta run. It’s smart boxing, always sharp, so don’t make any mistakes. It might not be his hardest fight but it’s going to be difficult for him.”
If he wants to be one of those champions who walks shoulder-to-shoulder with the greats in history, he needs to put Kambosos through hell.
He needs to flash the potential that had so many scouts excited when he was in the Olympics. He needs to show why promoter Eddie Hearn raves about him today.If he doesn’t, he’ll be recorded in history alongside the anonymous likes of Washington, Kacar and Berrio.