By William Mackay: #8 WBA ranked welterweight contender Matthew Hatton (42-5-2, 16 KO’s) is going into his March 17th fight against #3 WBO ranked Kell Brook (26-0, 18 KO’s) without the tools needed for him to find success in this fight.

Hatton, 30, doesn’t have his brother Ricky’s big power and he’s not very fast of hand or foot. For that matter, Hatton’s defense is pretty much nonexistent to the point where he’s a punching bag when he faces quality opposition.

Hatton will have a real hard time against Brook, because with the exception of Saul Alvarez, Brook is a lot better than the guys that Hatton has fought before during his career. Hatton doesn’t have the power needed or the speed to make Brook respect him. He’s not going to be able to keep Brook away with those soft shots that Hatton typically throws.

I know sometimes fighters can develop power through hard work and with weights, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case with Hatton. If he was able to improve in the power department than he already would have and been a champion by now at this point in his career.

It’s fair to say that Hatton is going to be badly outgunned by Brook in this fight and there’s not a whole lot of tricks that Hatton can use to change all that I mean I think Hatton needs to load up with everything he throws early on in the fight in order to try and get the respect from Brook, because if this guy doesn’t respect him than he’ll be all over Hatton tagging him with shots one after another until the referee or Hatton’s corner pulls the plug on the fight.

Brook will fight this bout a lot different than Alvarez did in beating Hatton. Alvarez focused on boxing and occasionally landing big shots, whereas Brook will get on top of Hatton and keep throwing punches until the referee or Hatton’s corner throws in the towel to have the fight stopped once and for all.