By Scott Gilfoid: Former European Boxing Union (EBU) welterweight champion Matthew Hatton (43-6-2, 17 KO’s) is already looking past his March 2nd fight against International Boxing Organization (IBO) welterweight champion Chris van Heerden (18-1-1, 10 KO’s) in South Africa towards a hoped for fight against either WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi or former WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko.
Hatton, #14 IBF, likes his chances against both of those guys for some reason. Hatton especially wants to fight Senchenko so that he can get revenge for Senchenko whipping his brother Ricky Hatton last year in a 9th round TKO win last November.
Hatton said to Sky Sports News “There’s fighters out there I can beat, Paulie Malignaggi for one is a fight I could win and obviously Vyacheslav Senchenko. He beat Ricky [Hatton] and that wasn’t nice for me to see. I’d like to get revenge over him and it’s another fight I believe I could win.
That sounds really nice and good Hatton talking about revenge and about beating Malignaggi, but there’s one big problem that is standing directly in the 31-year-old Hatton’s path to get to those bigger fights, and that’s the 25-year-old Van Heerden. Hatton doesn’t seem to realize that he’s little more than the sacrificial lamb being brought in for the ritual slaughter by Van Heerden, #11 IBF.
The chances of the light hitting Hatton beating Van Heerden are remote at best because of the difference in power, youth and talent between the two fighters. Van Heerden can punch and he’s a pretty good fighter. I mean, I don’t see Van Heerden as a top 5 contender at 147 or a future world champion for one of the major titles, but he’s definitely more than good enough to spank Hatton and send him off to another disappointing defeat.
I don’t see Hatton as being in the same class as Senchenko or Malignaggi, so he can forget about his dream of beating those guys or avenging Ricky’s loss.
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