Hatton-Marquez in May?

By Sean McDaniel: According to Boxing Scene, the World Boxing Organization has granted WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s) more time to make his title defense of his belt before having to defend it against WBO interim lightweight champion Michael Katsidis. The reason this is good news for Marquez is that he can squeeze in a May 1st fight, which is his next scheduled fight, against Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s). The former light welterweight and welterweight world title holder is in training for a comeback and is reportedly interested in facing Marquez.

This would be an excellent comeback fight for Hatton. He was knocked cold in the 2nd round in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd of 2009. Hatton didn’t look like his old self in that fight. First of all, Hatton looked weight drained as he came in the fight. He had taken off a lot of weight like he usually does, but in this case he looked weight drained and weak compared to his other fights. Additionally, Hatton and his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. didn’t appear to be clicking in training camp.

Something just didn’t seem right between the two, and it didn’t look like a good fit. Mayweather Sr. was supposed to be teaching Hatton how not to get hit as much. However, Hatton just didn’t seem suited to the new style and might be have been better off sticking with his old trainer Billy Graham. Hatton’s aggressive pressure style is what got him to the world level and to try and tinker with it and make him something what he is not was a bad idea at this late point in Hatton’s career.

Marquez likes to come after his opponents. Although he’s technically a counter puncher, he likes to create opportunities by being aggressive. Marquez doesn’t look nearly as sharp since moving up from the super featherweight division, however. He defeated Joel Casamayor and Juan Diaz both by knockout in 2008 and 2009, but Marquez, uncharacteristically, took a lot of punishment in both of the fights and it was close up until the point where he knocked them out. In his last fight, Marquez moved up to welterweight to take on Floyd Mayweather Jr., and ended up losing a one-sided 12 round decision in September. Marquez had no business fighting at that weight and looked too slow and too small for Mayweather.

Although Hatton and Marquez are both 5’7”, Ricky is the naturally bigger and stronger fighter of the two. Marquez doesn’t have the hand speed to worry Hatton the way that Mayweather and Pacquiao did. This should be a very winnable fight for Hatton, as long as he hasn’t gotten old overnight since his last loss to Pacquiao.

The one question about Hatton is whether the knockout loss to Pacquiao affected his ability to take shots. Some people think Hatton can’t punishment the way he used to. However, you can’t blame him for being knocked out, because he never saw the punch (a left hand from Pacquiao that knocked Hatton out in the 2nd round) coming. It doesn’t take that hard of a shot to knock a person out when they don’t see a punch coming. Pacquiao was just too fast for Hatton on that night.

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