By Eric Thomas: Matthew Hatton (41-5-2, 16 KO’s) says he’ll be moving back down in weight to the welterweight division after losing a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision to Mexican Saul Alvarez (36-0-1, 25 KO’s) in a failed quest to try and capture the vacant WBC junior middleweight title on Saturday night at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. The 29-year-old Hatton suffered a bloody nose, a cut on the left side of his eyebrow and was staggered in the 4th, 9th, 10th and 12th rounds in this hopelessly one-sided fight.

It’s not that Hatton didn’t have the skills to win this fight, because he looked better than Alvarez in terms of defensive ability and stamina. However, Hatton simply didn’t have the power and was often hit around the same time as Alvarez was throwing his own shots. Alvarez was able to move Hatton with his punches. Whereas with Hatton, his shots did next to nothing to Alvarez, even when they landed flush.

Getting the win was a good thing for Alvarez, but he also showed a number of flaws in getting the win. Alvarez has to fix his lack of head movement and ability to block shots. On defensive, Alvarez is very vulnerable. On offense, Alvarez doesn’t throw enough sustained combinations. Had he been able to really pour it on Hatton for one or two rounds, he would have likely stopped him. However, Alvarez mostly fought in short spurts followed by periods of rest.

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After the fight, Hatton said that he plans on moving back down in weight to the welterweight division. Hatton said that Alvarez was “too big” for him to deal with.

Alvarez was able to hurt Hatton with hooks to the body again and again. Hatton seemed to be able to take Alvarez’s head shots without too many problems. However, when he would throw to the body, he would often have Hatton covering up and looking to be in distress.

The final punch stats saw Hatton landing only 138 of 546 total punches, which comes out to 25%. For Alvarez, he landed 294 of 626, which is an incredible 47% connect rate. Alvarez’s shots were much harder than Hatton.