Fight Week: Richardson Hitchins to face unbeaten Argentine Gustavo Daniel Lemos

FIGHT WEEK

Richardson Hitchins is scheduled to face fellow unbeaten 140-pound contender Gustavo Daniel Lemos on Saturday in Las Vegas.

RICHARDSON HITCHINS (17-0, 7 KOs)
VS. GUSTAVO DANIEL LEMOS (29-0, 19 KOs)

• Date: Saturday, April 6
• Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
• Where: Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Las Vegas
• TV/Stream: DAZN
• Division: Junior welterweight (140 pounds)
• At stake: No major titles
• Pound-for-pound: None
• Odds: Hitchins 5-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
• Significance (up to five stars): ***
• Also on the card: Diego Pacheco vs. Shawn McCalman, super middleweights; Skye Nicolson vs. Sarah Mahfoud, featherweights (for vacant WBC title); Galal Yafai vs. Agustin Mauro Gauto, flyweights; Marc Castro vs. Abraham Montoya, junior lightweights
• Background: Hitchins is a 2016 U.S. Olympian and a rising young 140-pound contender from New York City. The 26-year-old, an excellent technician, is coming off the biggest victory of his career: a near-shutout decision over former three-time world title challenger Jose Zepeda on Sept. 23. Hitchins is ranked in the Top 3 in three of the four major sanctioning bodies, No. 2 by the WBC. Lemos is best known for his fifth-round knockout of one-time 126-pound titleholder Lee Selby at 135 pounds in March 2022, which sent the aging Welshman into retirement. The IBF’s No. 7-ranked 140-pounder also is on a run of 10 consecutive knockouts. However, he has faced no one else of note. And the 28-year-old resident of Buenos Aires has never fought outside of his native country, which makes it difficult to gauge the threat to Hitchins he will pose on Saturday.

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

THURSDAY

• Tito Sanchez vs. Erik Ruiz, junior featherweights, Indio, California (DAZN)
• Jordan Panthen vs. Ravshan Hudaynazarov, junior middleweights, Costa Mesa, California (TrillerTV+)

FRIDAY

• Ernesto Mercado vs. Deiner Berrio, junior welterweights, Houston (DAZN)

SATURDAY

• Bakhram Murtazaliev vs. Jack Culcay, junior middleweights (for vacant IBF title), Falkansee, Germany (no TV in U.S.)
• Richie Rivera vs. Mathew Obinna, light heavyweights, Uncasville, Connecticut (StarBoxing.TV)