By Jim Dower: Last Saturday night’s fight between unbeaten Saul Alvarez (36-0-1, 26 KO’s) and Britain’s Matthew Hatton (41-5-2, 16 KO’s) brought in huge numbers on HBO, according to Dan Rafael. The fight brought in 1.4 million viewers, which turned out to be the best ‘BAD’ main event for HBO in two years since the James Kirkland vs. Joel Julio bout in March 2009.
This is incredible considering that before this fight, the 20-year-old Alvarez had faced mostly 2nd tier opposition and older former champions like Carlos Baldomir and Lovemore N’dou. You have to give credit to Alvarez and his popularity among the Mexican fanbase for the huge numbers, because Alvarez is a huge star in Mexico despite being still an unproven fighter. Hatton, the brother of former two-time world champion Ricky Hatton, was fighting for the first time in the United States and likely wasn’t the reason for the huge amount of viewers.
The huge interest in seeing the Alvarez-Hatton fight is good news for HBO, because they could have a star and a big draw on their hands if Alvarez can keep winning for awhile. But that’s going to be tough because Alvarez looked far from unbeatable last Saturday night against Hatton. There are a lot better fighters ranked in the top 15 compared to Hatton, and the way that Alvarez was getting hit by the light hitting Hatton, Alvarez could have some serious problems if he ends up fighting guys like Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto, Kermit Cintron, Antonio Margarito, Alfredo Angulo or Paul Williams in the future. Alvarez is targeting Shane Mosley and Cotto next.
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