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Richardson Hitchins is set to defend his IBF Junior Welterweight title on Saturday, June 14 against Australian George Kambosos Jr. in a Matchroom Boxing event at Madison Square Garden — but before stepping into the ring, the 27-year-old had to fight through poverty and the streets of Brooklyn.
The match will be the champions' first defense of his IBF belt, and his second bout at MSG, but the road to the Garden started in Crown Heights, where Hitchins experienced gun violence at an early age.
"I was selling water to the guys playing basketball at Lincoln Terrace Park, and a lady came on the court, pulled her gun out, and shot a guy I knew from the neighborhood," Hitchens recalled in a recent interview with BK Reader. "He had an incident with the lady's daughter, and the mother came back with a gun, shot and killed him."
This wasn't the only incident: one day, he was hanging out a barbershop on Utica Avenue near President Street and realized he was late getting to the gym. Moments after he left the shop, a group of guys on a rooftop across the street "shot the whole barbershop," he said.
"My barber got shot, bystanders got shot. So a lot was going on in Crown Heights, but to me it was normal," he said.
Hitchins said he was primed for boxing because knowing how to fight was "mandatory."
"You can't be soft. At three o'clock, we fight after school, or you have to fight this dude on your block," said Hitchins, who attended Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant before transferring to the Science Skills Center High School for Science, Technology and the Creative Arts in Downtown Brooklyn.
The boxer said he always loved to fight, but finding the Flatbush Gardens Boxing Gym, located in the Vanderveer Estates NYCHA complex, was a turning point. Founded by famed boxing trainer Teddy Atlas and NYC Cops & Kids, the gym runs boxing and fitness programs, as well as tutoring sessions for teens aged 12-21. The free program is funded by the NYPD Boxing Team, which has helped thousands of teens stay on the positive path in life.
The journey from Crown Heights to headlining MSG has been eye opening, Hitchins said. He grew up in a Haitian household and felt he was "culturally rich," as he was surrounded by Jamaican, Trinidadians and Jewish Brooklynites.
When not training for a fight, Hitchins, who represented Haiti in the 2016 Olympics, trains at Gym X in Bed-Stuy.
Now that he's standing on sturdy ground in his boxing career, Hitchins said that he wants to work with young people. He especially wants to give back during the holidays and back-to-school events, as he knows the challenges of growing up in financially-challenged environments.
"Growing up and seeing more than just Crown Heights, seeing more than what I was used to, I realized like, 'Damn, I made it from an environment where the odds were stacked against me,'" he said.
The fight can be watched on DAZN, and tickets to the match are available by clicking here.
