Two light heavyweights fighters will start off the Queensberry vs. Matchroom proceedings in Riyadh on June 1.
Emerging contender Willy Hutchinson wil face off with veteran Craig 'Spider' Richards on the huge card this Saturday, live on DAZN.
Hutchinson, 25, has produced four consecutive victories after taking the only loss of his career back in 2021. He was most recently in the ring in March, when he claimed a second-round stoppage victory against Martin Houben.
Hutchinson now comes up against 33-year-old Richards, who came back to the ring in February this year after a near two-year hiatus. Richards was the winner in that comeback fight, stopping Boris Crighton in the seventh round.
Here's everything you need to know ahead of Hutchinson vs. Richards.
When is Hutchinson vs. Richards?
The fighters are expected to ringwalk at around 6:00 PM UTC at Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which is 2:00 PM EST or 11:00 AM PST on the West Coast of America, or 7:00 PM BST in the UK.
“There were a few names. I think they actually went through them one by one. If he didn't do it, then it was him. Then they weren't sure if he was going to be good enough so there were lots of mixes and changes for so many different reasons but eventually – it was only like a couple of weeks ago – I heard it was Willy Hutchinson,” Richards told IFL. “I was just like, ‘Look, whoever it is, it is. I don’t really care who’s on the other side of the ring. I’m going to go and do my job.’ That's who it ended up being and so be it.”
“When I first stepped up to light heavyweight there were question marks on my name of how good I would be at light heavyweight and there were six of us at Matchroom at the time,” he remembered. “It was survival of the fittest and we knew that a few of us had to go; that’s when I had the box off with Jake Ball [Richards stopped Ball back in 2019].
“The six who actually were there, none of them are here any more. I’m the last one standing and I’m picked as the No. 1 to go and fight in ‘5 vs. 5’ as the light heavyweight so I’ve come a long way.”
“Craig Richards wins. If I see if I see the stoppage, you know me I’m going for it,” he said. “It’s a new Craig Richards, it’s different opposition now and I want to show and display what I’ve been working on.”
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