This Saturday, 1st June, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an unprecedented tournament will take place between Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions called 5 vs 5.

The concept is the brain child of his excellency Turki Alalshikh, the head of the general sports authority of Saudi Arabia.

The format of the 5 vs 5 tournament is that five fighters who are promoted by Matchroom Boxing will take on five fighters who are promoted by Queensberry promotions.

Each individual fighter will score points for their respective teams.

Win by KO: 2 points
Win by points: 1 point
Draw: 0 points
Loss: 0 points

One fighter in each team will be designated captain and will score double points. If a captain wins by KO for example, they score 4 points.

Eddie Hearn, head of Matchroom Boxing and Frank Warren, head of Queensberry promotions have picked two weight divisions each.  The 5th weight category was chosen by Turki Alalshikh.

Frank Warren chose the Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions.  Eddie Hearn, the Light Heavyweight and Featherweight divisions. Turki Alalshikh chose the Heavyweight division.

·        Heavyweight (Turki Alalshikh )

·        Heavyweight (Frank Warren)

·        Light Heavyweight (Eddie Hearn)

·        Middleweight (Frank Warren)

·        Featherweight (Eddie Hearn)

When the weights were initially announced, the fight that naturally sprung to mind to be made for the Light Heavyweight division was Callum Smith (Matchroom) vs Anthony Yarde (Queensberry).  This would arguably have been the pick of the fights on the 5 vs 5 card.  A world level, domestic clash that would be hard to call.

The reality, however, is that Callum Smith suffered a crushing loss to Artur Beterbiev in January, and the post-fight interviews suggested that he would be taking some time out over the summer to get married and to think about whether he wanted to continue in the sport.

Yarde also lost to Beterbiev, a year earlier in January 2023, in a competitive fight. Since then, Yarde has had two tick-over fights and is currently in a contractual dispute with Queensberry promotions.

Yarde was also touted to fight Boxxer’s Joshua Buatsi, a fight that has been talked about for years, but nothing has come to fruition as yet.

So, with Callum Smith and Anthony Yarde out of the picture, who was next in line to shape up in the opposite corners for the Light Heavyweight bout on this historic card?

The answer is Craig Richards and Willy Hutchinson.

Not as mouth-watering a prospect as Smith vs Yarde perhaps, but still an intriguing contest.

Both fighters are looking to position themselves for a world title shot, and will do so on one of the biggest stages in world boxing.

Hutchinson is in a rich vein of form coming off four consecutive wins. At 25 years old with a record of 17-1 (14 KO’s), Hutchinson is confident that he can produce what would be seen as an upset victory over Richards.

‘I’m as ready as ever’. Hutchinson told Andy Clarke on the Queensberry Promotions You Tube channel.  

‘You just need to look at my last four fights, I’ve looked good, better, better, better and I’m going to look better again.

‘It’s the right fight at the right time, and I believe God has put me in this position to push on’.

Craig Richards is the more experienced fighter of the two.  34 years old with a record of 18-3-1 (11 KOs), Richards has fought higher level opposition as a professional, but has lost against both world class opponents that he has come up against so far.

In May 2021, Richards lost by unanimous decision to WBA Light Heavyweight Champion, Dimitry Bivol and in May 2022 lost by unanimous decision to Joshua Buatsi.

Richards had nearly two years out of the ring after the loss to Buatsi before returning with a win over Boris Crighton in February this year.

This will be Richards’ second fight with trainer Shane McGuigan, since leaving his previous trainer Peter Sims, and he feels rejuvenated.

‘I reached a plateau [with Peter Sims] so me and Shane had a conversation. I’ve always respected Shane as a trainer, he’s just won trainer of the year’. Richards told Andy Clarke

‘I thought I had a few percentages to improve on, but Shane’s showed me that I’ve got so much more to improve on.

‘I’m improving as a fighter, week in and week out and I’m excited.  I feel like I’m getting ready for my debut again and that the best part of my career is yet to come.’

Previous criticism has been that Richards has not let his hands go enough and fought a bit too cautiously.  It will be interesting to see if Shane McGuigan can bring a more aggressive side out of Richards.

Willy Hutchinson, a decorated amateur boxer, is full of confidence and adamant that he will get past Richards on his way to bigger and better things.

Although this fight might not get the limelight on a stacked card, the fight is the only all-British clash on the show, embodying the rivalry between Matchroom and Queensberry.