By Sean McDaniel: Second tier welterweight prospect Matthew Hatton (37-4, 14 KOs) gets the chance of a lifetime in facing Zab Judah (37-6, 25 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout on July 18th on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. Matthew’s brother is Ricky Hatton, need I say more for why Matthew probably got the fight?
Up to this point, Hatton, 28, has fought strictly against British fighters that weren’t quite world class fighter. Hatton doesn’t have the power or tenacity of his older brother, although he is highly skilled judging by Hatton’s wins over Ben Tackie and Ted Bami, arguably Hatton’s biggest wins of his nine year pro career.
However, Hatton has struggled when facing speedy and talented fighters like Craig Watson, getting outclassed by Watson last year while attempting to capture the welterweight Commonwealth title. Hatton has looked a lot better since then, albeit against easier competition than Watson.
Judah, 31, is still ranked high in the WBA at the number #4 spot. However, Judah has been beaten four times in the past three years, getting beaten almost every time he faces a quality fighter in the top 10 nowadays.
In truth the 5’7” Judah is probably too small for the welterweight division and has paid a severe price for moving up in weight five years ago in search of big money fights against opponents like Cory Spinks, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey.
After initially finding luck against Spinks to win the International Boxing Federation/WBA/WBC welterweight titles, Judah has had much less good luck in being defeated by Mayweather, Cotto and Clotty in failed title shots.
It would seem like the smart thing for Judah to do would be for him to move down to the light welterweight division where Judah previously held the IBF title. However, the competition isn’t as well known as the welterweight division and as such, there’s much less opportunities for Judah to land big money fights down there.
Even though Judah would likely be a champion if he moved down in weight, he still seems to prefer hanging around the welterweight division where he gets an occasional title shot for big money.
This is a fight that Hatton will be fortunate if he doesn’t get knocked out early. Hatton has a good chin, but poor hand speed and little power. He will probably try to keep the fight on the outside where Hatton will be able to use his jabs and left hook to make it interesting for awhile.
However, Judah has much better speed and will be able to get close to Hatton without too of an effort to land fast combinations. I don’t expect that Hatton will be able to hand around for long once Judah starts pounding him with combinations.
Hatton isn’t close to being a 1st tier fighter and will be having problems once Judah opens up with his offense. Look for Judah to end the fight by knockout around the 7th round.
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