15.05.06 – By Karen Belford: On Saturday night, Ricky Hatton (41-0, 30 KO’s) defeated, Luis Collazo, to take his WBA Welterweight title at the Banknorth Garden, in Boston. Hatton, as usual, performed in an impressive fashion, one of his best, in fact, winning by the scores of 115-112, 115-112 and 114-113. Personally, I had Hatton winning 9 rounds to 3, losing only the 5th, 10th and 12th rounds to Collazo. Although Hatton had one brief rough spot in the 12th round, it still didn’t put a damper on his impressive outing. But no matter, Hatton performed admirably, considering that this was his first venture into the Welterweight division, after having moved up from the super lightweight division, where he had been dominating champion.
It’s frankly astonishing for me to read many of the comments by people who feel that Hatton lost the fight, since he clearly landed more punches than Collazo in virtually every round of the fight, excluding the three rounds that he lost in my scoring. Despite what some people think, he fought beautifully, like a real champion out there and it made me happy and proud to see him win.
Then again, Hatton seemed to have the deck stacked against him from the beginning by going over to the U.S, where hostile audiences seemed more than eager to try and chop him down to size and destroy his hero status.
Oddly enough, the fight didn’t seem as if it were going to last, for Collazo was knocked down in the first 15 seconds of the fight by one of Hatton’s big left hooks. Collazo, looking more embarrassed than hurt, quickly got up and retreated to the ropes where Hatton unloaded with an assortment of body and head shots, though none of them were able to finish the jab.
In rounds 1 thru 4, Hatton pressed the attack much of the time, with Collazo, a souhpaw, content to cover up and throw an occasional left hand counter punch or jab.
In round five, Hatton appeared to take the round off, letting Collazo land some of his best shots of the fight. Yet, even with Hatton appearing to rest, the round was very close. Part of the problem, of course, was all of the running that Collazo was doing, which was not exactly crowd pleasing, to say the least. At a bare minimum, fight fans, especially Americans, like for their fighters to stand and trade punches in the center of the ring, something that Collazo rarely did until late in the fight, unfortunately for him.
Hatton, as if inspired by Collazo’s strong round, poured it on in rounds 6 thru 9, winning all of them with his smothering pressure and superior work rate. I didn’t give Collazo any of these rounds, since he was only landing quick punches while Hatton was wading in and then eating a lot of leather once Hatton was inside. Even on the outside, Hatton was the superior fighter, often landing beautiful right hands and text book left hooks, which landed with a loud thud to the face of Collazo. However, there was a lot of dirty fighting by both fighters, but most of it appeared to be initiated by Collazo.
In round 10, Collazo was very effective at timing Hatton while he was coming in and landed numerous shots, snapping Hatton’s head back over and over. Hatton appeared to be quite tired, at this time in the fight, yet he still fired back with combinations but all the same, his punches appeared to be coming in slower than in previous rounds.
However, Hatton came back strong in the 11th round, going right hand crazy and landing a storm of punches to Collazo’s face, which was beginning to redden from the effects of the punches. Hatton fought as if it was the first round, alternating ripping punches to the head and body of Collazo.
Finally, in the 12th round, Collazo seemed to turn it up a notch, obviously desperate and probably thinking knockout, no doubt. About halfway through the round, Collazo caught Hatton with a right, followed by a left hand, which seemed to hurt Hatton. Regrettably, Collazo’s offensive skills were so ineffective, he wasn’t able to do much to take advantage of the situation. After a short period of time, Hatton cleared his head and resumed taking the fight to Collazo. It was a strange round, indeed.
There you have it, 9 rounds to 3, with Hatton winning easily, from what I saw of the fight. Before anyone starts with the comments, let me make this clear: I could care less about Hatton, I really don’t care whether he wins or loses. I just think he was the better fighter and his offensive skills are more pleasing to me. In fact, there are few fighters that have an offensive arsenal comparable to Hatton’s, certainly not Floyd Mayweather Jr or Gatti. Other than, perhaps, Antonio Margarito, there’s no one, in particular, in the welterweight division that has comparable skills to Hatton.
Contrary to what others are saying, I would say that Hatton needs to stay at 147, as he’s got the skills to dominate at this weight, regardless of what other’s feel. He just needs time to adjust to the new weight, since right now, he’s still getting used to carrying the weight and taking punches from bigger men. Hopefully, Hatton will take on someone like Gatti or perhaps De La Hoya, in his next fight, since there’s no point in wasting time with the lesser fighters. Personally, I’d be quite interested in seeing him fight De La Hoya, who I think he could beat, if given the chance. Would De La Hoya be interested in a fight with Hatton? I bet he would.