By Manuel Perez: According to a recent interview on boxingtalk.com, IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi has this to say about former champion Ricky Hatton: “He cannot take a punch. To the head to the body, I’ve been saying this for years he cannot take a punch and that’s why he fights the way he does.” Malignaggi went on to say that the reason that Hatton tends to hold so much is that he is prevent his opponents from getting as much as power on their shots so as to avoid getting hurt.

To top it off, Malignaggi later on said that he wouldn’t be surprised that he knocks Hatton out, which seems somewhat odd considering that Malignaggi isn’t known for having much power to speak of. However, if there’s one thing that Hatton seems to have problems with is handling punches that he doesn’t see coming at him. For instance, in his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007, it was a lightning fast left hook that hurt Hatton in the 10th round, sending him bouncing off the corner protective padding and falling to the canvas. A short while later, Hatton was obliterated by a flurry of speedy shots from Mayweather, many of which were far too fast for Hatton to attempt block. With Malignaggi, his speed is almost as good as Mayweather, maybe a shade or two slower if that.

This is bad news for Hatton, who almost ran into trouble again in his last fight with Juan Lazcano in which Hatton was tagged by a short left hook that he never saw coming in the 8th round, hurting him wobbling him slightly and causing a brief rough period in the bout.

Fortunately for Hatton, Lazcano didn’t have much left to follow up with anything and thanks to a stoppage in the fight by the referee two first warn Lazcano about pushing Hatton’s head down, then afterwards giving Hatton a timeout to tie his shoelace, this allowed Hatton to get through this difficult round. Malignaggi, though, would be much tougher, as his speed is extraordinary compared to most fighters and enables him to land blazing fast shots without getting hit. Malignaggi appears ready for Hatton’s style, specifically his tendency to clinch a lot with his opponents, which turns the fight into a grueling inside game which favors Hatton due to his often superior wrestling techniques.

Hatton tried clinching in his bout with Mayweather, but he was greeted with a lot of sharp, short punches to the head each time he would attempt to grab Mayweather. No doubt, Malignaggi has watched the Mayweather fight over and over again, and will be ready for Hatton’s grappling style of fighting. One can expect to see Malignaggi moving constantly, sticking a jab in Hatton’s face and preventing him from setting up shot on the inside. Clearly, Malignaggi has the much superior boxing skills of the two, and will be a very difficult opponent for Hatton to deal with. Unlike Miguel Cotto, who previously defeated Malignaggi by a narrow 12-round unanimous decision in June 2006, Hatton doesn’t have a good jab like Cotto.

This means that it will be much harder for Hatton to try and pressure Malignaggi, for without a jab or a long right or left hand to herd Malignaggi in, Hatton’s going to have to use a lot more timing to try and cut off the ring. I don’t expect Hatton to be able to win the exchanges if the fight turns into a tactical bout of brief flurries, because that’s a style that favors the quicker Malignaggi. Hatton has mostly done well with fighting opponents that are willing to fight on the inside with him, like Kostya Tszyu and Jose Lose Castillo. In both examples, they made the major mistake of thinking they could beat Hatton as his own game, to out-slug him at close quarters and out-wrestle him.

However, Hatton is quite exceptional at the close infighting, as Tszyu and Castillo quickly discovered, and in both fights Hatton was able to stop them inside the distance. Hatton is much more vulnerable when his opponents stay on the outside and resist his attempts at making it an inside war. This was the case in Hatton’s fight with Luis Collazo in May 2005, a fight where Collazo gave Hatton all kinds of problems on the outside with movement and a good jab. As good as Collazo is as a fighter, Malignaggi is even better, as far as I’m concerned. He looks to be the better boxer by far and that’s going to be a problem for Hatton, since he had tremendous problems with Collazo and was lucky to escape with a narrow 12-round decision. By many accounts, Collazo appeared to win the fight and beat Hatton by a close decision. If Collazo can do that to Hatton, I hate to think what Malignaggi will do to him with his much faster hand speed and busy style of fighting.