Malignaggi: Hatton will maul Senchenko in close and not let him rest

By Boxing News - 11/23/2012 - Comments

Image: Malignaggi: Hatton will maul Senchenko in close and not let him restBy Scott Gilfoid: Paulie Malignaggi sees Ricky Hatton’s inside pressur fighting being the undoing for Vyacheslav Senchenko tomorrow night. Malignaggi just finished beating Senchenko last April, and he doesn’t see anything there that will cause Hatton a lot of problems if Hatton sticks to his inside fighting game that he usually uses.

Malignaggi said on Sky Ringside “The pressure style [of Hatton], the mauling style has the potential to make Senchenko very uncomfortable. Senchenko likes to fight at a distance, but when you get in close to him there’s really not much he does. He likes to rest in the clinches and get a break, and you don’t get those kinds of breaks on the inside with Ricky Hatton. So if Ricky can close the distance it’s a win. Ricky’s going to want to get on the inside, and Senchenko is going to want to stay on the outside, so whoever imposes their style better.”

Malignaggi has a point. Hatton could end up mugging Senchenko if he’s not good enough at escaping Hatton’s inside fighting. However, if Senchenko has studied Mayweather’s win over Hatton he should know that he can KO Hatton by stepping to the side and hitting him with short hooks to the head the way that Mayweather did. Also, Hatton is wide open for short punches when he’s working in close because he lowers his head like a billy goat and makes him vulnerable for short, hard punches to the head.

That’s all that Senchenko needs to do when he’s trapped by Hatton in close. But the best way to fight Hatton is to keep him on the outside by jabbing a lot, and then moving away when he tries to plod forward.

If Senchenko gets trapped, then he just steps to the side and nails Hatton with a short left hook the way that Juan Lazcano and Mayweather did in their fights with him. That’s how you beat Hatton, and I don’t see that changing despite the fact that he’s been out of boxing for close to four years.



Comments are closed.