Craig Richards is targeting an opponent capable of taking him back into contention to challenge for a world title in 2026.
The 35 year old started the rebuilding process, off the back of his defeat by Willy Hutchinson, when in March he travelled to Belfast, Northern Ireland to stop the Irishman Padraig McCrory.
March’s victory represented his first fight since recruiting Tony Sims to be his new trainer after his split from Shane McGuigan, and at a time when suggestions persist that David Benavidez and Callum Smith will contest the WBO light-heavyweight title and Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev will later in 2025 fight for a third time – for the titles of the WBA, WBC and IBF – Richards wants to position himself to capitalise on the wide open landscape he anticipates thereafter.
The presence of both his former opponents Joshua Buatsi and Hutchinson and that of Anthony Yarde means that Richards’ victory over McCrory maintained his relevance in one of British boxing’s most appealing weight divisions.
Richards had hoped to secure a fight date for the summer of 2025, but he recognises the value of spending further time under Sims – before working with McGuigan he was trained by Tony’s brother Peter – after what had previously been a run of three defeats in five, albeit against opponents of the calibre of Hutchinson, Buatsi and Bivol.
“I want a big name, highly ranked,” he told BoxingScene. “Someone on that world-title brink; someone towards that stage. We want to push on at some point for a world title, so whoever’s going to push me towards that direction, I’m happy to fight.
“I don’t really look at people individually and think, ‘I want him’. I speak to the team. ‘That’s the guy that can get you to here.’ ‘Okay, that’s fine.’
“[In victory over McCrory, Sims] said I was good. He said, ‘I know you can perform better’, and we’re just gonna push on and build on it. I’ve worked with Peter, his brother, but [Tony] was overseeing our training at times in big fights. We worked with a certain blueprint. The one thing at the Matchroom Gym, he gets you very fit and conditioned, and I’m a fighter that needs to be fit and conditioned. Once I left the gym and worked with other athletes, my engine wasn’t my unique selling point anymore, and it caught me down the stretch. That wasn’t a good feeling, so now I’m back there and training really hard. You might go to another gym and train two, three hours a day; at the Matchroom Gym you train from 7am to 4pm – it’s a full day’s graft, six days a week, so you know when you get in that ring you’ve more than done the preparation outside of it.
“[McGuigan] has his style, and I think he wanted me to box that style, which I wasn’t sure about leading up to that fight [with Hutchinson], which probably knocked me mentally; knocked my confidence a little bit leading up to it, ‘cause I wasn’t sparring great. I was getting caught with silly shots and having competitive spars with people I shouldn’t have been having competitive spars with. I hoped it’d click on the night, which it didn’t, and it reassured me that how I think and look at boxing, I was sure about what I needed to do. Everything works for different fighters, and I just didn’t think it worked for me.
“[I’m prioritising being] a good boxer. A good IQ, and working to my fundamentals.”
Richards’ stoppage of the 36-year-old McCrory, who had previously lost only to the Puerto Rican Edgar Berlanga, was overlooked as a consequence of the controversy the followed in the main event that night between the welterweights Paddy Donovan and Lewis Crocker, who are on course for a rematch.
“Being co-main on a big card like that, it was good, ‘cause by the time we fought it was a sold-out arena; all eyes was on it; televised; it was great,” he reflected. “The controversy at the end then become the main story with the whole card, but it didn’t matter to me – it was about getting my career back on track and showing that I belong at the top level. I left the Matchroom Gym for a while and I wasn’t performing at my best; I’ve gone back to the Matchroom Gym seven weeks out from the fight; everything clicked and came back together. I just felt like I was back to myself, and I wanted to go and show that – go out there, dominate and get the stoppage and performing how I was in the gym, and I did that with a six-week camp. Next time I’ll have a 12-week camp and I’ll be working on things between. I’ll only grow and get better from hereon.
“It was a decent performance. I can perform better, but I was happy that I won every round in Belfast on the scorecards and also got the stoppage. Knowing I was away I had to make sure that I had the stoppage, because you can never be sure when you’re in another man’s back yard. I just wanted to make sure that I got the knockout. But it didn’t matter; I heard afterwards I was winning on all the scorecards. He’s a good fighter. It was a good win and put myself back; I’m back in the frame.”