- A red-hot
boxing prospect says he's living proof thatFloyd Mayweather vs.Logan Paul exhibitions can create new boxing fans. Richardson Hitchins , a Mayweather protege, was introduced to the boxer not through boxing, but via the WWE.- Hitchins didn't know what boxing was when he was eight years old, but watched Mayweather break Big Show's nose during an appearance with the world's leading pro wrestling firm.
- He then became fascinated by Mayweather, learned to box because of him, and signed professional terms with
Mayweather Promotions in 2017. - Hitchins fights Saturday on Showtime.
A red-hot boxing prospect called Richardson Hitchins says he's living proof that exhibitions like Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul can create new generations of boxing fans.
"People think it's bad for boxing, but I think it's good for boxing!" Hitchins told Insider this week, ahead of his super lightweight match against Argenis Mendez at the Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Connecticut, on Saturday.
Exhibitions like Mayweather vs. Paul, scheduled for February 20, 2021, have been criticized by some boxing reporters.
The combat correspondent Kevin Iole damned the event in a recent Yahoo! Sports column. "This is starting to turn boxing into a farce," Iole wrote.
Insider took a different stance and said people like Mayweather, Mike Tyson, and the YouTube creator Jake Paul are ushering in a golden era of boxing exhibitions.
When kept as a sideshow - a different entity to boxing - showbiz boxing is popular, lucrative, and, above all, fun, we said at the time.
Now Hitchins is saying people who watch exhibitions because they're fans of other forms of entertainment, may become boxing fans - or fighters - as a result.
Hitchins himself had never even seen a fight at eight years old, he told us. He was, however, a huge fan of WWE. And so when Mayweather made a pro wrestling appearance and broke Big Show's nose, Hitchins became fascinated with the cocky boxer he saw in front of him.
Hitchins then started following Mayweather's career and was inspired to pick up boxing gloves and learn to box as a result.
Approximately a decade later, Hitchins became an Olympian, signed professional terms with Mayweather Promotions, and regularly visits Mayweather in Las Vegas.
"It's dope I was introduced to Floyd by WWE," Hitchins told us. "And some people might think that [WWE] was a gimmick, but a lot of guys, Logan Paul fans, might want to get into boxing as a result of all this, just like I did."
The Mayweather Promotions athlete Hitchins fights Mendez on Showtime.
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