By Jason Kim: Making his first appearance since his 10th round drubbing at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. last December, light welterweight Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) had an easy time defeating his handpicked opponent Juan Lazcano (37-5-1, 27 KOs), defeating him by an utterly one-sided 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Manchester Stadium, in England. So once sided was it, that the fight probably should have been stopped as early as the 7th round, when it was clear that Lazcano had no chance in the fight and was merely taking punishment.
Indeed, only rarely did Lazcano throw any punches, although when he did, he found it surprisingly easy to hit Hatton. The final judges’ scores were 120-110, 118-110 and 120-108, all for Hatton. Lazcano, 33, has seen his best days long ago, perhaps as long as five years or more, wasn’t in the same class as Hatton at this late stage of his career, and it showed early on as he wasn’t able to compete with him. The only round Lazcano came close to winning, I believe, is the 3rd round, and that’s only because Hatton kept walking into shots.
It was a lucky thing for Hatton that Lazcano didn’t have a little more speed or power, because he would have been big trouble for Hatton, enough perhaps to take him out like Mayweather did last December. Hatton’s defense was just as poor as it was against Mayweather, and he was hit with some really clean shots in many of the rounds. Of course, what Hatton dished out to Lazcano was far worse, bordering on murder, for he hit him with everything but the kitchen sink for 12 rounds, never hurting him but giving him one of the worse beatings I’ve seen in quite some time.
I got to hand it to Lazcano for having such an excellent chin, because he took a savage beating round after round, yet never showed signs of being hurt like other fighters that have been in the ring with Hatton. That was the strange part, though, because with the shots that Lazcano was hit with, he should have wilted by the 6th or 7th rounds, when he had already taken an inhuman amount of punishment, yet he continued to fight back round after round. In some occasions, Hatton would be firing off shots, looking as if he were on the verge of a knockout, only to have Lazcano come firing back and land some choice shots to Hatton’s head.
It is unfortunate that Hatton had to fight someone of Lazcano’s class, a fighter not ranked in the top 15 in any of the alphabet sections of the light welterweight division. With that fact in mind, Hatton’s win was much less impressive than it would be otherwise if he had beaten a top level fighter like, say, Lamont Peterson, Herman Ngoudjo or Junior Witter, to name just a few. The way Hatton fought tonight, I’m not sure if he could beat fighters like those mentioned, which is probably why he chose a weaker fighter like Lazcano in the first place.
Hatton pressured Lazcano often in the early going, stalking him and hitting him with big leaping hooks to the body and head, Lazcano fought well for the first three rounds, landing some powerful hooks and jabs to the head of Hatton, snapping his head back frequently. In some ways, it looked like Mayweather tagging Hatton, but unlike Mayweather, Lazcano had a nonexistent defense and his power was much less impressive as well. Lazcano did especially well in the 3rd round, catching Hatton on the way in frequently. He landed on especially good left hook, the same kind of “check hook” that Mayweather landed, and it connected well, though with less than identical results, however.
After the 3rd round, Lazcano wore down rapidly, his punch output dropping off badly, and his energy on his shots diminishing along with it. He was still able to catch Hatton, but he was getting in fewer and fewer shots, with much less power. Hatton stayed on top of him, making it difficult due to the constant rain of punches that Hatton was unloading.
The crowd, much as can be expected, were a big factor for the entire fight, cheering loudly and applauding every punch that Hatton threw, even the misses. Like in his fight in Las Vegas, his fans sang for most of the fight, pretty much the same song over and over again. In a way, it spoiled the fight because it was rather annoying to listen to. It least this time, however, Hatton actually won the fight, which made the singing a little less ridiculous.
Overall, it was a good showing for Hatton. He looked impressive on offense, never letting up on Lazcano and hitting him with some god-awful shots to the head and body. A lesser fighter, perhaps most fighters in the division, would have given in well before the final bell, but not Lazcano. Both of them should be applauded. The only bad thing that came out of this fight is the fact that Hatton will now likely move on to fight IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, who stunk up the joint earlier in the card with a rather poor showing against Lovemore N’dou.
Believe me, Hatton is better off looking elsewhere rather than wasting his time with Malignaggi. He’s the type of opponent that brings a fighter down, I think, with his empty flurries and constant running and clinching. Hatton instead should go after either WBO light welterweight champion Ricardo Torres or WBC title holder Timothy Bradley. At least a fight with either of them would be interesting for the fans to watch. Of course, they’re much more dangerous than the feather-fisted Malignaggi.