Richardson Hitchins says he’ll fight Keyshawn Davis in Wales. He also wants the money to remain the same as when the bout was pitched for Madison Square Garden. If Pacquiao–Shakur joins Fury–Joshua in Cardiff, that demand becomes much harder to satisfy.
Hitchins says he has accepted the Davis fight and that Keyshawn told him he was ready to sign. He dislikes the proposed move overseas but would make the trip for the opportunity. The opponent isn’t his sticking point. The terms might be.
“As long as the pay is the same, I’m cool,” Hitchins told Sean Zittel and Radio Raheem.
The original plan, by Hitchins’s account, put him and Davis in the co-feature beneath Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in New York. Cardiff changes the audience and the setting. A possible Manny Pacquiao–Shakur Stevenson fight changes the card’s pecking order as well. If that bout is added, Hitchins–Davis would likely sit beneath two much bigger attractions.
Hitchins has every right to ask for the purse he wants. Promoters have to decide what the fight adds at that price. Two skilled Americans meeting at welterweight is an excellent matchup for boxing followers, but Hitchins’s patient style may be a tough sell to a stadium crowd waiting for Fury and Joshua. Twelve rounds of careful jabbing and clinching would put pressure on the event’s pace, especially if his bout runs close to the headliners.
Madison Square Garden would have given Hitchins familiar surroundings and supporters in the building. In Cardiff, he would need to win over a crowd with little reason to favor either American. Davis may have the more crowd pleasing combinations, though he still has to land them against a boxer who excels at controlling distance.
None of this means Hitchins is refusing Wales or that his purse is holding up the deal. No figures have been disclosed, and Pacquiao–Shakur has not been finalized. The offer Hitchins liked in New York may look different on a crowded Cardiff bill. He has accepted the opponent. Now he needs the terms to work.
Hitchins holding out for co-feature money while sitting in the number three slot shows a complete failure to grasp how Zuffa, TKO, and Netflix operate.
Dana White and TKO do not overpay undercard fighters who bring zero ticket sales or subscriptions. They run a business built on leverage. When a card features heavyweight giants like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua alongside a pairing like Manny Pacquiao and Shakur Stevenson, every dollar is already allocated to the top of the marquee. Those headliners drive the subscriptions and pack eighty thousand seats in Cardiff. The third fight on the bill is there to fill airtime, not eat up premium budget.
Hitchins is confusing his personal ambition with actual market value. Fighters slotted third on a mega broadcast do not get multimillion-dollar packages. If he demands the same guarantee he was pitched when he thought he was the primary co-feature in New York, Zuffa and the organizers will simply look past him. Keyshawn wants the fight, but Keyshawn also has promotional backing and mainstream interest.
If Hitchins digs his heels in over money, matchmakers can easily replace him with another welterweight or junior welterweight hungry for global exposure on Netflix. By overplaying his hand, Hitchins risks sitting at home watching Keyshawn fight someone else under the brightest lights in the sport.
Matchmakers have an endless line of hungry contenders ready to take Hitchins’ spot for half the money just to get on a global Netflix stage. If Hitchins walks away over purse demands, nobody is shedding a tear, and the promoters will not hesitate to pivot to a replacement who comes to throw leather.
Keyshawn comes out ahead regardless. If Hitchins drops out, Keyshawn gets matched with an aggressive, fan-friendly welterweight or junior welterweight whom he can likely dismantle in style. Looking explosive on a bill featuring Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Manny Pacquiao, and Shakur Stevenson does infinitely more for Keyshawn’s market value than chasing Hitchins around the ring for twelve rounds of clinches and jabs.
For Hitchins, walking away would be career self-sabotage. His style has never drawn mainstream attention or moved live gates. He needs marquee dance partners to stay relevant. Accepting smaller money to fight Keyshawn in Wales is the necessary cost of entry to unlock the division’s real moneymakers.
Beating Keyshawn is Hitchins’ only path to force his way into conversations with the big money names at welterweight. If Hitchins prices himself out now, he shuts the door on all of them [Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez and Rolando Romero]. He gets left in the cold, relegated to low-profile headline slots on small cards. Taking the fight, taking the pay cut, and taking the trip to Wales is his only real lottery ticket.
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