By Shaun Campbell: Matthew Hatton will be stepping up in class once against to face the current IBO welterweight champion Lovemore N’dou on November 13th. The title bout was originally scheduled to take place on September 11th in South Africa, but Hatton’s team managed to secure the fight take place in Manchester in front of his home fans, giving Matthew a big boost. The venue is yet to be decided.
Some have argued that the MEN arena would be the best place to hold the event, but with Amir Khan failing to sell out the 25,000 seated arena in his clash with Andreas Kotelnik, it is unlikely that Hatton Promotions will decide upon it. Bolton arena is a possible alternative.
There have been many problems in the build up to this fight with the contracts, venue and even the opponents for Matthew, but it finally looks to be all sorted as Gareth Williams who is COE of Hatton Promotions along side Ricky, will be heading out to South Africa to complete the final details.
‘Magic’ Matthew Hatton will be going into this fight as the underdog, as N’dou has arguably fought the higher calibre of opponents, but it’s a fight Hatton is confident he can win. He told Manchester news “I’m really confident of winning this fight and to become a world champion in Manchester is what dreams are made of.”
Hatton has greatly improved in recent fights which are why he was given the chance to fight Zab Judah on the undercard of Mayweather/Marquez, but Judah’s camp forced Hatton to pull out due to their unreasonable demands.
Brother Ricky has also been seen in the ring again, only this time he has shunned the microphone he has been seen with on his promotion shows, and laced up his gloves again. Nothing much should be read into this as he is obviously going to want to try out his new facilities, and all fighters get bored after taking a break for a while. Ricky is no different.
But it could be seen that he is getting closer to making a decision as he looked to be enjoying it. Every time he hit the bag it was greeting with a trademark Hatton grunt. Is Ricky Fatton there on orders from his missus to lose some of that weight, or is the Hitman serious about returning back to the ring?
Whatever he decides it will be greeted with support from his fans, and there will always be loudmouth critics who don’t agree with his decision. But now it is time for the spotlight to hit Matthew Hatton as he bids to follow in his brother’s footsteps and become the IBO world champion.