By Scott Gilfoid: I don’t know about you, but after watching Ricky Hatton’s poor performance against Paulie Malignaggi last Saturday night, I for one, don’t want to see Hatton getting in the ring against Oscar De La Hoya anytime soon. It’s not that it wouldn’t be interesting, because it would have a certain circus-like appeal to such a fight, but as for it being a competitive fight that would have lasting value, the fight would probably fall far short of attaining that goal.
Hatton, 30, struggled last Saturday night against the light-hitting 5’8″ Malignaggi, missing often and taking a lot of counter shots from him in the process. If it weren’t for the fact that Malignaggi had almost zero power, we very well have seen Hatton getting stopped for the second time in three fights. As it was, he looked terrible for his third fight in a row and looked like his timing was way off.
The fight had no business being stopped by Malignaggi’s trainer Buddy McGirt, as Paulie was in no way hurt or taking serious punishment. He wasn’t going to win, that’s for sure, but he wasn’t in the least bit of trouble at the time that McGirt stopped the fight. Hatton looked barely better than Malignaggi in most of the rounds, missing countless punches over and over again.
Hatton seemed to land in the single digits, struggling as if he were fighting blind. The only thing that Hatton had going for him was that he had the bigger power, which enabled him to win rounds even though he was getting out-landed most of the time.
If I wanted to be kind, I’d say that Hatton only looked bad because of Malignaggi’s excellent defensive movements, but the problem was, Hatton was missing even when Malignaggi was standing right next to him at close range.
It reminded me somewhat of Roy Jones Jr., who couldn’t hit Joe Calzaghe even when Calzaghe was leaning forward with his head almost buried in his chest. Hatton looked like he was trying to aim his shots but because of his bad timing, he was missing constantly in situations that he shouldn’t have been missing.
I had Malignaggi winning five of the first six rounds of the bout because of Hatton’s inability to land with any kind of regularity. In the second half of the fight, Hatton’s accuracy didn’t improve any, but he was able to succeed because of his wrestling with Malignaggi in close, which quickly wore Paulie down after awhile.
If Malignaggi had the awareness to stay away from the clinches, he probably would have made mincemeat of Hatton’s face from the outside and easily beat him. At a distance, Hatton was little threat because of his short arms and his poor accuracy.
Speaking of bigger and better things, Hatton shouldn’t move up for a fight against De La Hoya, because Hatton proved little in his fight against Malignaggi, other than he can wear a fighter down with wrestling.
For Hatton to move up against a bigger fighter, harder puncher and a much better boxer like De La Hoya, would be an almost suicidal move for Hatton and would be a fight that he would lose in a big way.
Let Hatton prove that he’s the best fighter in the light welterweight division, and if he can prove that, then yes, by all means, let him move up and fight De La Hoya or move down against take on the diminutive Manny Pacquiao. Hatton would be equally destroyed by Pacquiao and would be severely beaten if they were to fight.
At this point, I see Hatton as more or less a top five fighter in the light welterweight division and not a true champion caliber fighter. Other than that, a fight between De La Hoya and Hatton would be a terrible mismatch with Hatton taking a terrible beating and losing badly.
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