It’s conjecture, but generally speaking, you’ll have a difficult time finding a pair of 140-pounders better than Teofimo Lopez and Arnold Barboza. And although their ascents in the sport were vastly differently, they met in the middle of the ring for a world title fight last week and got it on.

Opinions aren’t something that gets under the skin of Richardson Hitchins but when it comes to naming the best junior-welterweight in the world, he takes offense if his name isn't brought up first. So, with no plans last Friday night, Hitchins threw on his designer clothes, draped a few gold chains around his neck, and headed to Times Square for The Ring's Fatal Fury event to scout the competition.

Hitchins, the IBF 140-pound champ, was excited to watch the action. However, with each passing second, his attitude morphed into a listless one. Heading in, the Brooklyn native wasn’t sure who would emerge with the victory but he was fairly certain that there would be fireworks. He also believed that things would be competitive. Neither was true.

Absent of what Hitchins was expecting, Lopez dominated. From combination punching to slick defense, Lopez had it all clicking on the night, leading to a fairly lopsided unanimous decision victory and the retainment of his Ring and WBO titles.

For Hitchins, he wants what Lopez has: credibility, more titles, and pound-for-pound recognition. He’ll at least take a step in the right direction this coming June when he takes on former unified lightweight champ, George Kambosos Jr.

The trash-talking Aussie, from Hitchins’ point of view, isn’t as good as people make him out to be. From there, he hopes to move on to bigger and better things. In his mind, that would include matchups against either Lopez or even Barboza.

“I just wanna unify,” said Hitchins to The Ring recently. “I’ll beat both guys the same night.”