By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten welterweight contender Saul Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KO’s) is being linked with a December 4th fight against European Boxing Union (EBU) welterweight champion Matthew Hatton (40-4-2, 15 KO’s), according to the latest boxing news. Alvarez, 20, defeated former welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir last Saturday night by a 6th round knockout and now his promoters Golden Boy Promotions want to see Alvarez back in the ring before the end of the year.
Hatton, 29, is presumably being picked out because he has very little power and yet is known to the casual boxing fans in the United States because of his famous brother Ricky Hatton, a former two division world champion. Alvarez showed good power in beating the 39-year-old Baldomir but he also proved to be poor on defense. Because of that, Golden Boy are likely going to be extra careful who they match Alvarez against and will probably steer away from any kind of punchers until Alvarez learns how to defend himself a lot better than he is right now.
Baldomir was the perfect opponent for Alvarez because Baldomir had little power and his work rate wasn’t as good as used to be. However, there are a lot of welterweights and junior middleweights that Alvarez has to be protected from right now because he would likely be knocked out by them. In Alvarez’s recent fight against lightweight Jose Miguel Cotto, Alvarez was badly staggered in the opening round of the fight and took a lot of shelling from Cotto until he faded after the 6th round.
Matthew Hatton isn’t as aggressive as Cotto, so it’s unlikely that he’s going to surprise anyone by pulling an upset over Alvarez. Frankly, I’d be really surprised if Hatton takes this fight, because he seems to have been carefully matched his entire career for the most part, and a fight against Alvarez would be really breaking from that mold. I know that Hatton was hoping to get a shot against one of the welterweight champions, and a fight against Alvarez would probably end up derailing those dreams if Hatton were to get knocked out.
I can see Hatton taking the fight if he’s able to get a huge payday, the kind that he would get against one of the welterweight champions. But I seriously doubt that Hatton will be offered a huge amount to fight Alvarez. This fight may be a pipe dream. If it does happen, it’s hard to see what gain Alvarez will get out of it. He’ll get better known by the boxing public for beating Hatton, but I don’t know that it will improve Alvarez much. I think he’ll still have huge problems when he’s matched against Andre Berto or one of the top junior middleweight prospects like Erislandy Lara.
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