Richards gets British title tilt on terrestrial TV against rival Pitters

Crystal Palace light-heavyweight Craig Richards will take on rival Shakan Pitters for the vacant British title on Saturday28th March, on free-to-air Channel 5.

The evenly matched fighters will battle for the belt, vacated by Joshua Buatsi.

Richards, 29, has had the Southern Area Super-Middleweight title and the WBA Continental Light-Heavyweighttitle in his 17-fight career.

This will be his second shot at the British Light-Heavyweight titleafter his points loss to then champion Frank Buglioni in October 2017 at the Principality Stadium – Richards had taken the fight at just five days’ notice after original opponent Callum Johnson withdrew.

At one point in the third round he looked like he was going to cause a huge upset.

Since then ‘Spider’ has been unbeaten in six fights, although his last fight was scored a surprised draw to Chad Sugden.

Richards said: “Pitters is not ready to challenge for the British title, he should have defended the English and then fought an eliminator to prove he’s ready.

“People are getting carried away withhim. Just take a look at his record – his four knockouts have been against a guy who lost 72 fights; someone who only had three fights; another one with 29 losses and someone making his debut.

“He was badly hurt in his last fight against Spelman. Is the fight taking place in Coventry to give him some kind of advantage? It will work against him and the pressure will all be on him.

“I’ve fought on an Anthony Joshua show in front of 86,000 people against Frank Buglioni for the British title at just five days’ notice. Fighting in Coventry means nothing to me. It won’t go the distance unless he gets on his bike for 12 rounds. When I hit him on the chin and he lands on Big Ben he’ll wish the fight would have taken place in London.”

Pitters, 6ft 6in from Birmingham, said: “I’m not like any of the guys he’s faced before. He keeps going on about Andre Sterling, Jake Ball and Frank Buglioni – he just living off those names. Then he’ll realise how good I am.”