By Jim Dower: In winning his fight on May 24th against the tough Mexican Juan Lazcano, former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) may have destroyed his shot at landing what would likely be a huge mega bout against Oscar De La Hoya in the future. Though Hatton, 29, did end up getting the win over Lazcano, it was a difficult bout for Ricky and one where he appeared to get help from the referee in the 10th round to avoid being knocked out by the Mexican fighter.
This obviously wasn’t missed by De La Hoya, who came out recently and said that he’s not interested in fighting Hatton, that their weight differences between them would be too much for the fight to be able to come off. De La Hoya said that he could probably make the 140 lb weight limit if he had to, but that he would prefer not to have do that. At the same time, De La Hoya had some advice for Hatton, telling him to not to move up to 147 – the welterweight division again – because the extra weight would make a big difference in his performance. Though De La Hoya was trying his hardest to be kind to Hatton, not to ruffle his feathers any, it still came across that Hatton was being rejected as an unsuitable opponent. De La Hoya was previously very interested in fighting Hatton before his recent fight with Lazcano.
By Jim Dower: As I was watching former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) absorb tremendous punishment in 8th and 10th rounds by the light-hitting Juan Lazcano, who hurt Hatton badly in both rounds, it finally dawned on me that Hatton, perhaps, can no longer take a big shot at this stage of his career. Some people are of the opinion that Hatton’s chin was damaged earlier in his career, possibly in his bout with the hard hitting Vince Phillips, who Hatton defeated in April 2003 in a fight that Phillips stunned Hatton on a couple of occasions with big hand shots. 
By Nate Anderson: Whether he likes it or not, Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) may have to earn his rematch the hard way by beating a trio of smaller fighters, such as lightweights Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis, and super featherweight Manny Pacquiao, before he can make himself relevant for another fight with the great Floyd Mayweather Jr. Hatton, 29, has done little to warrant a rematch with Mayweather at this point. His last fight, a disappointing points win over veteran Mexican fighter Juan Lazcano, was a mixed bag where Hatton looked good at time, almost seeming to be back to his 2005 form, but then later in the fight Hatton began to get nailed with many of the same punches (short left hooks) that he was hurt with against Mayweather. 
By Aaron Klein: With last Saturday’s terribly unimpressive wins for both IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi and former champion Ricky Hatton, it looks as if we’re about to see a matchup between the two of them, most likely in November. However, it all depends on whether Malignaggi’s injury to his right hand ( a knuckle injury) has healed by then. Either way, we’ll still likely be forced to watch Hatton challenge Malignaggi for his IBF title at some point in the future, because it looks as if Hatton has decided upon him as his best option (read: easiest) for a title shot. However, it’s really unfortunate that Hatton has decided on taking on Malignaggi rather than the other three junior welterweight champions, in particular WBC title holder Timothy Bradley and WBO champion Ricardo Torres, both of which are much more dangerous and hard-hitting than the weak-punching Malignaggi. 
By Scott Gilfoid: It was sad to see former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) struggle last night to defeat a non-top ranked opponent Juan Lazcano (37-5-1, 27 KOs), whom he defeated by 12-round unanimous decision at the Manchester Stadium, in front of 50,000 screaming Hatton fans. The scores, 120-110, 118-110 and 120-108, were slightly misleading because Lazcano did well in stretches of the fight, hurting Hatton in the 8th and 10th rounds of the bout with excellent left hands. 
By Eric Thomas: No matter how many times that I watch Ricky Hatton’s fight with Juan Lazcano, I can’t help thinking that Hatton was saved by referee Howard John Foster in the 10th round after Hatton was nailed with another check-hook by Juan Lazcano, catching Hatton as he was jumping in with a leaping left hook, hurting him and causing him to stagger slightly. Immediately after the punch landed, Hatton staggered, then began grabbing a hold of Lazcano disparately. Lazcano tagged Hatton with another big left hook, which Hatton took flush in the face. For the next 20 seconds, Hatton clinched continuously, while Lazcano pumped in short combinations to the head of Hatton. 
By Jason Kim: Making his first appearance since his 10th round drubbing at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. last December, light welterweight Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) had an easy time defeating his handpicked opponent Juan Lazcano (37-5-1, 27 KOs), defeating him by an utterly one-sided 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Manchester Stadium, in England. So once sided was it, that the fight probably should have been stopped as early as the 7th round, when it was clear that Lazcano had no chance in the fight and was merely taking punishment. 
By Chris Williams: On the undercard of Saturday’s bout between Ricky Hatton and Juan Lazcano, IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (24-1, 5 KOs) will be defending his title against challenger and former IBF champion Lovemore N’dou (46-9-1, 31 KO’s) in a rematch of their previous fight last year on June 16th, 2007. Malignaggi, 27, used a combination of counter punching and movement to keep the slower, harder punching N’dou from landing any real significant shots. In winning the fight, Malignaggi took N’dou’s title, which he’ll be defending for the second time on Saturday night. 
By Eric Thomas: With most people’s thoughts on this Saturday’s bout between Ricky Hatton (43-1, 31 KOs) and Juan Lazcano, a lot of the attention has seemed to have been drawn away from Hatton’s stated goal of fighting unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in early 2009, a fight that is Hatton’s seemingly insane plan for vengeance. He appears to be dead set on making this fight happen, talking about the previous fight often, while seeing the fight through a foggy haze of a dimmed memory. As Hatton tells it, he was doing well against Mayweather in the 1st half of the fight.