By Matt Stein: Undefeated welterweight contender Saul Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KO’s) may have another easy mark for his next fight. According to the Record, the 20-year-old Alvarez will be facing European Boxing Union (EBU) welterweight champion Matthew Hatton (40-4-2, 15 KO’s) on December 4th, in Cancun, Mexico. Given how wide open Alvarez looked on defense in his last fight with 39-year-old Carlos Baldomir last weekend, I had a feeling that his promoter, Golden Promotions, would continue to match Alvarez soft to keep him from getting beaten.
With 29-year-old light hitting Hatton, Alvarez will likely keep his unbeaten record for a little while longer. Hatton is very beatable, and not just against Alvarez. Hatton recently defeated Yuriy Nuzhnenko in his last fight, beating him by a 12 round decision in July. Hatton, 29, is the younger brother of former IBF light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton. Matthew Hatton doesn’t have the power of his older brother, however.
That could be one factor that makes him appealing as a potential opponent for Alvarez. This is a fight that Alvarez should win unless he’s worse than I thought he was. Hatton is the type of fighter that pecks away at his opponents and wins by decision. Alvarez will likely take Matthew out if he can stay on him and unload his power shots for seven or eight rounds. Matthew doesn’t have the kind of power to take advantage of Alvarez’s nonexistent defense. Matthew will make Alvarez look a lot better than he really is. However, if you were to put Alvarez in against a good junior middleweight like Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, James Kirkland or Sergeii Dzinziruk, I see Alvarez getting dominated and stopped. His defense is too poor to beat those kinds of fighters.
I don’t know that this is a fight that will prove anything, other than the fact that Alvarez can beat a fringe contender. Eventually, Golden Boy is going to have to put Alvarez in against better fighters, because they can’t keep matching him against soft punchers or old fighters forever.
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