By Sean McDaniel: Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) will be challenging IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KOs) on November 22nd, at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hatton, 29, already is a huge favorite to defeat Malignaggi, and regain his IBF light welterweight title. However, Hatton may be in for a bit of a shocker in this one, for Malignaggi has impeccable boxing skills which are a cut above that of Hatton and barring a knockout victory for Hatton, this may turn out to be a case of Malignaggi having too much skill for the slower, less skilled Hatton to deal with.

For those who may have forgotten, Malignaggi already gave a tough fight to Miguel Cotto in June 2006, battling him to the wire before losing a close 12-round decision. As good as Hatton is as a fighter, he’s probably not in the class of Cotto and likely never will be as good a fighter as the Puerto Rican star. Malignaggi, using movement, pinpoint punches and expert defense, gave Cotto fits in the bout. At the time of the fight, Cotto fought much in the same way that Hatton does, pressuring constantly, coming forward in a straight line attempting to slug it out. Malignaggi showed what class he has by dealing with Cotto’s style and almost proving to be better than him in the fight.

Now, flash forward two years later, with Malignaggi, now greatly improved since that time, about to take on a 29 year-old Hatton, who most boxing fans will agree on, has seen his best days in the ring and is clearly on the downside of his career. In point of fact, Hatton is coming off a close call against journeyman Juan Lazcano, who twice hurt Hatton in the fight and gave him a lot of problems throughout.

Who knows? Maybe it was just an off night for Hatton, a case of him being a little rusty and not at his best. However, it was his second consecutive off night, as he was stopped by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the 10th round give months previous to this, in December 2007. That makes it harder to ignore, because Hatton looked like an awful mess in the Mayweather fight, like a regular novice against a professional fighter. Malignaggi, for his part, has a style not unlike Mayweather, minus the power.

However, Malignaggi may not need the power because his speed could be the telling factor in a fight with Hatton, who has a way of running into left hooks as of late. Hatton will probably fight the same way he always does, and go right after Malignaggi and try to take his head off with every shot. For a fighter as skilled as Malignaggi, this may make his work much easier than one would suspect, because he does well against the Rocky Balboa types of fighters. Malignaggi has already beaten Herman Ngoudjo and Lovemore N’dou, two light welterweights with an even bigger puncher and, in the case of Ngoudjo, better speed than Hatton.

Both of those fights have occurred recently for Malignaggi, and he looked good in both fights, proving that he can beat that style of slugging with his quicker hands and slick defense. However, Hatton has yet to prove that he can beat the Mayweather-type style that Malignaggi tends to use in his fights.

This is why it’s hard to predict what will happen with Hatton and Malignaggi. If the fight had occurred three years ago, I would easily pick Hatton as the winner of the fight based on his explosive offense and relentless style of fighting back then. Now, however, he looks almost like a shot fighter, barely good enough to beat Juan Lazcano and Luis Collazo.

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