The IBF 140-pound champion was set to face Duarte in the co-main event of “The Ring: High Stakes.” The card is headlined by WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios facing Ryan Garcia at T-Mobile Arena on DAZN PPV. Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) fell ill after the weigh-in and was vomiting before withdrawing from the bout. The IBF implements a rehydration clause on the morning of the fight that forces fighters to weigh no more than 10 pounds over their weight-class limit. Hitchins, of Brooklyn, New York, had defended his title once, when he knocked former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos out in the eighth round on June 14.

Contacted Saturday afternoon by The Ring, IBF president Daryl Peoples declined to comment.

Gary Antuanne Russell's 140-pound WBA title defense against Andy Hiraoka moves into the co-main event slot. A middleweight bout between Amari Jones and Luis Arias will shift onto the PPV portion of the card.

Hitchins had previously talked to The Ring about the rehydration clause and how he had learned to navigate it from his title eliminator against Gustavo Lemos in 2024.

Hitchins overcame a late surge from Lemos to win a narrow unanimous decision.

"I gained a lot of experience from that fight, especially with the way I rehydrated," he said Wednesday in Las Vegas. "It showed me that rehydrating the wrong way can almost cost you a fight and I think that fight was way closer than it should have been. I made it look way closer than it should have been because of my fatigue in the ring."