15.05.06 – By Dan Horgan, photo by David Martin Warr / DKP – Last night, I was in attendance for the Luis Collazo-Ricky Hatton welterweight bout and had quite a night that I am happy to share with all of the eastsideboxing readers.
THE SURROUNDINGS:
I arrived at the TD Bank North Garden about a half hour early to make sure I caught all of the under card bouts. While waiting to get into the arena, I ran into Mike Tyson conqueror and Boston resident Kevin McBride. I introduced myself and asked him if the supposed fight with WBO champion Serguie Lyakhovich would come off this summer and he simply replied “Hopefully. It would be a great fight.” We had about a five minute conversation and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. However, when someone asked him when he was fighting again, he replied “not to soon” and jokingly covered up his stomach as he looked a bit soft around the middle.
While entering the arena, I saw Paul Malignaggi who is a friend of Collazo’s. Malignaggi had on a leather coat, a pair of shades, and a headband, and carried with him a huge entourage while he yapped away on his cell phone.
My seats weren’t ringside, but they were the next best thing, so I was able to take in the atmosphere pretty well. Surprisingly, there weren’t too many British fans in attendance (or at least from what I saw). I was sitting next to a man from Wales who said that the British fans there thought Hatton would win the fight easily.
THE UNDERCARD
The undercard disappointingly did not start until 8:00 eastern time, so unfortunately I was only able to see some of the fights on the card (the other fights did not start until well after the main event, I wasn‘t able to stick around).
The first fight was Ricky’s little brother Matthew against a tough New England native in Jose Medina. Medina is a game fighter who has lost a few questionable decisions in his career, so despite the 9-6 record, he is actually one of the better opponents the well protected Hatton has faced. The fight was pretty much the same round after round. Medina would put together some nice combinations from time to time, but it was Hatton’s counter right hand that sealed the deal for him. He landed the punch with authority about 25 times throughout the bout, and Medina had no answer to defend it. Although Hatton boasts a 28-2-1 record, he is far from world class. Medina is a good fighter, but if a guy like him could put those type of combinations together against the limited Hatton, I can’t imagine what a world class fighter would do to him.
Next up was Massachusetts prospect Joe McCreedy against veteran Lamont Cooper. Cooper was game, but no match for the much more athletic McCreedy. McCreedy simply followed Cooper around the ring the whole fight and threw right hand after right hand. Cooper was able to land some right hands in the fight, but McCreedy crowded him too much for Cooper to get anything off. McCreedy looks like a good athlete, but unless he can develop something other than a right cross, he will never reach an elite level.
After that was the co-feature of the evening—Valdemir Pereira vs. Eric Aiken. When Aiken entered the ring, it became quite obvious that he did not come to lose. He looked quite confident as he looked to his friends in the crowd and started to rap to the song he came into the ring with. Not to be outdone, Pereira came in with his native Brazilian hat and stocked back and forth, ready to fight. For the first round and a half, Aiken’s jab kept Pereira off of him and he was clearly more effective. However, about half way through the second round, Pereira unleashed two huge eight punch combinations and it looked as though he would dominate the rest of the fight.
But the third round Pereira still couldn’t seem to get by Aiken’s jab. In the fourth round, Pereira seemed to finally settle in, as he landed some wild combinations to Aiken’s body, but not backing down, Aiken landed a crushing combo that sent Pereira down. The fifth started the same as the fourth, as Pereira was dominating the action until he was caught with a left hook to the body and went down again. However, Pereira came back with another incredible combination and ended up lessening the round (on my scorecard) to 10-9.
In rounds six and seven, Pereira dominated the action with a body punch barrage, but he just couldn’t seem to keep his punches up. He had hit Aiken below the belt pretty clearly before, and in round six he had a point deducted for a debatable low blow. In the seventh, he hit Aiken low again and had another point deducted. And in the eighth (which he was dominating) Pereira hit Aiken with the most questionable low blow of the night (to me it looked right on the belt line) and was disqualified.
It took Aiken a second, but he erupted once he realized he had become champion of the world. He jumped up on the corner of the ring and said to the crowd “I can’t hear you!” The crowd loudly booed the decision to have Pereira disqualified, and Pereira was obviously angry. Despite the controversy, what a story Aiken has become. This is a guy who on March 19 of this year was coming off a loss to a 5-0 fighter. How remarkable that just two months later, he is a world champion. His first defense should be the one that gets him the most money, which might mean a rematch with Pereira, who I don’t feel took the fight seriously.
THE MAIN EVENT
Hatton entered the ring to “Blue Moon” which all of the British fans sang along to, and Collazo came into the ring extra confident as well.
The fight itself was very exciting. Although it could have gone either way, I scored the fight 114-113 for Hatton. Hatton crowded Collazo too much, especially in the earlier rounds and his volume of punches sealed the deal for him. The majority of fans around me thought Collazo was the clear winner, but I think they may have been judging the fight as one big round.
The future for Hatton I think may have been dampened last night. I honestly don’t think it was Collazo’s hand speed that gave Hatton the trouble he had, it was his welterweight power. Hatton clearly is not a welterweight, and it may be tough for him to shed that extra muscle to get down to 140 where I think he’s best. However, Hatton still is a top ten pound for pound fighter and with the exception of Floyd Mayweather, would stand a great chance against any fighter from 140 to 147.
Collazo’s future too may have dampened. Last night was his night to shine, and although he fought a great fight, he missed his chance which may not come again. I don’t think any of the big names will be willing to fight him now that everyone knows how good he is. He is too much of a high risk and little reward fighter.
So what a night it was. Any fight fan who hasn’t been to a big event like his, save up your money and go. The atmosphere is simply electric, and you get to enjoy the fight with other fight fans which seem harder and harder to find these days. Anyone who doesn’t think that boxing is on its way back is crazy. I don’t care what sport you are talking about, it’s boxing.