Round four

Richards, despite his struggles in the last round, comes forward again.

Hutchinson turns southpaw and jabs to the body. He backs up to the ropes and keeps his stance very fluid.

As he moves forward and off the ropes, he lands another clean right hand! There’s a clinch, and Hutchinson catches Richards with another right when they break...

Richards again looks to work behind the jab, but he needs something more significant. He’s tagged on the end of a left hook, as Hutchinson stands orthodox for now.

Hutchinson with a bit of showboating late in the round.

Round three

Hutchinson is orthodox for now. Richards jabs to the body. He covers up as Hutchinson rushes in with a pair of hooks.

Richards blocked those, but he was wobbled off balance a bit. Hutchinson switches southpaw again. Another body jab by Richards.

Hutchinson responds in kind, then goes orthodox again.

Two big crosses land for Hutchinson! Richards retreats. He aims to get back behind his jab. Worrying times for Hearn’s man.

Hutchinson stays southpaw for now. He jabs hard to the body.

He switches back and catches out Richards with that left hook and cross in the corner! A cleaner land than last time.

He throws the combination again, and Richards looks a little vulnerable right now.

Hutchinson leans back to avoid a right cross from the Londoner. Richards comes forward, and Hutchinson just misses with a counter left hook.

Both men stand orthodox. Richards is the more active fighter in the early moments, fighting behind his jab and holding the middle of the ring.

Hutchinson closes range with a left hook and a right cross, which just about land, as Richards is backed into the corner.

Richards circles away and walks Hutchinson onto a jab. That’s been the best weapon of the round for either fighter, but that one-two by Hutchinson in the corner was decent work.

Now Hutchinson goes southpaw, late in the round.

We get the card under way with Craig “Spider” Richards vs Willy Hutchinson!

This is a light-heavyweight bout, scheduled for 12 rounds. The vacant WBC Silver belt is on the line.

Richards fights for Matchroom; Hutchinson represents Queensberry.

Londoner Richards is 18-3-1 (11 KOs), while Scotland’s Hutchinson is 17-1 (13 KOs).

A reminder that there are six fights tonight; aside from the 5 vs 5, we’ll have Dmitry Bivol defending his WBA light-heavyweight belt against Malik Zinad.

The unbeaten Bivol was due to face Artur Beterbiev, also undefeated, in a long-awaited undisputed clash, but the unified champ recently suffered an injury.

As such, Bivol boxes Zinad here to stay busy, with the Beterbiev fight set for later in the year – hopefully!

Ahead of tonight’s co-main event between Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois, we spoke to Dubois at his gym in London.

The full interview is below, but here’s an excerpt...

They say you can tell a lot about someone by their handshake. But in Daniel Dubois’s case, it is more of a decoy.

From how gently he greets me, I reason he harbours a very real concern that he’d grind my bones to fine dust, if only he were to apply a little more pressure. So I’ll take the polite, cautious hint of grip, which he offers in a brief break from hopping and shadow-boxing.

Contrary to what his handshake would suggest, those hulking fists – those blunt objects – have done plenty of bludgeoning in the British heavyweight’s young career. “I don’t like to take too much pleasure in it, but I do enjoy it,” Dubois says, when asked whether he has actively savoured knocking out 19 of the 22 professionals who have shared a ring with him.

“For me now, it’s just business. This is what I do, I want to be the best at it. I love this sport, but it could go either way, this isn’t a scripted thing; you have to write your own script.”

Full interview:

Rules/format:

• Each boxer will earn one point for a decision victory or two for a knockout.

• No points are earned in the case of a draw.

Captains (Wilder for Matchroom; Sheeraz for Queensberry) will see their personal points doubled.

• The team with the most points overall wins.

• Per Give Me Sport, the winning team will earn $3m in prize money between them. Individual purses have not been disclosed.

Selected odds:

Wilder – 5/4; Zhang – 4/6; Draw – 16/1

Hrgovic – 2/5; Dubois – 2/1; Draw – 16/1

Bivol – 1/33; Zinad – 11/1; Draw – 20/1

Tonight’s card in full, from main event working backwards (as far as we know!):

Deontay Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang (heavyweight)

Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois (heavyweight)

Austin “Ammo” Williams vs Hamzah Sheeraz (middleweight)

Dmitry Bivol (C) vs Malik Zinad (WBA light-heavyweight title)

Raymond Ford (C) vs Nick Ball (WBA featherweight title)

Craig “Spider” Richards vs Willy Hutchinson (light-heavyweight)