By William Mackay: Fringe welterweight contender Matthew Hatton (41-5-2, 16 KO’s) takes on soft opponent Andrei Abramenka (15-0-2, 3 KO’s) next month on August 19th for the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) International welterweight title at the Tower Circus, Blackpool, Lancashire.

This will be the 30-year-old Hatton’s first fight since being totally dominated in a 12 round decision loss to Saul Alvarez last March. Hatton is hoping that a win over the weak-punching Abramenka will land him a title shot against WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko. It’s hard to see that happening, as Hatton isn’t even ranked in the top 15 by the World Boxing Association at this time. But you know boxing, we could see Hatton pushed way up the rings all overnight with a win over this Abramenka guy.

If Senchenko is looking for a good safe fight against a relatively well known fighter than Hatton is the way to go. He’s not much of a threat to beating Sechenko, who a lot of boxing fans see as a paper champion, because of Hatton’s lack of power and speed.

Hatton said “Abramenka is a good calibre opponent and facing him proves I am going straight back in against a meaningful opponent.”

Hatton really needed to take on a contender for this date instead of this guy. Golden Boy Promotions might have even put Hatton on one of their high visibility cards if Hatton were willing to take on a live opponent instead of some obscure guy like Abramenka. I can kind of understand Hatton wanting to take a tune-up, but at his age and with the ton of fights he’s got on his resume, he’s kind of a little too old to be fighting tune-ups. He needs to be fighting quality every time out instead of wasting time with his career facing soft touches.