By Alan Thomson: Who’s the man? The Magic Man or the Hit Man? The slickster from Brooklyn or the brawler from Manchester?
Although from what we’re hearing from the Hatton camp, it may be the slickster vs. the new and improved boxer. Hatton maintains that we’ll see a new Ricky in the ring on Saturday, one who will demonstrate more honed boxing skills than we’ve seen from him in the past, courtesy of new trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Whether he’s the new Ricky, jabbing and bobbing his way inside or the old Ricky, storming and swarming his opponent, he’s going to put a lot of pressure on Malignaggi. Paulie will of course attempt to counter with his slick footwork and fast hands.
So who will prevail? First off, Hatton has faced a better quality of opponents than Malignaggi. Outside of Paulie’s lone loss to Miguel Cotto, the names on his resume look about as impressive as a wife after thirty-years and four dress sizes.
Stylistically I think the matchup favors Hatton. The rub on Ricky is that he has a difficult time dealing with slick boxers. Well, his only loss is to Mayweather. Malignaggi is no Mayweather. For one thing, Paulie is not as evasive. He gets hit. He’ll have his moments. And his rounds. But ultimately Malignaggi’s lack of power is going to cost him. Hatton will eventually catch up with him and begin to land consistently. And when he does, Paulie won’t have the firepower to keep him away.
I think it will be a close fight, closer than many of Ricky’s fans will be comfortable with and possibly an ugly fight marred by excessive holding as Hatton works his way inside. I see Malignaggi doing well early but then fading as the fight goes on and Hatton begins to wear him down. Paulie has an excellent chin and has shown that he is capable of absorbing a lot of punishment, so I don’t see Hatton stopping him. But Ricky should do just enough to get the nod.
It will be interesting to see if Hatton is true to his word and does in fact utilize more of his boxing skills. And if he does, whether he is able to maintain them should the fight become difficult or turn ugly.
If he does happen to pull it off successfully, perhaps they’ll have to change the words of his song to “There are two Ricky Hattons, two Ricky Hattons. One who can box. One who can brawl. Rickie Hatton now can do it all.”
Comments are closed.