21.01.07 – By Ricardo Lois, BoxingConfidential.com: Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo’s respective fights on Saturday night at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada did little more than give Top Rank, Fight Academy, and Banner Promotions the green light for a June 2 showdown between the junior welterweights. Hatton (photo by Curtis McCormick) handled Colombian Juan Urango in a professional manner, taking the bout by wide decision. The Brit’ did an excellent job of boxing at times, but also did his fair of holding and grabbing Urango, prompting my comrade at Boxing Confidential, John Chavez, to lean over and tell me during the fifth assault, “I see a lot of John Ruiz in Hatton.”
Body punches may prove to be Hatton’s kryptonite, as the slow of foot Urango was able to land some body punches that made Manchester’s native son visibly wince and maintain his hand’s lower for the majority of the fight. Camp Castillo noted the chink in the armor, with manager Fernando Beltran saying, “One thin is clear, Hatton does not like it to the body.”
Hatton may not like it to the body, but Castillo looked sluggish and slow against the more than game Canadian Cameroonian Herman Ngoudjo. Castillo had trouble with Herman, who with a mere fifteen professional fights showed decent speed and guts..
My scorecard had the fight 115-114 for Ngoudjo, while the official scorers awarded Castillo a close split decision.
Ngoudjo impressed fans and writers to the point that Castillo, in post-fight comments, stated, “If I win against Hatton, I would be happy to grant him [Ngoudjo] a rematch.”
Hatton’s less than pleasing style, coupled with Castillo’s less than stellar performance did little to attract glitz and glamour to their pending summer fight. Yet, one thing was clear, the Brit’s will come in droves.
Art Pelullo, of Banner Promotions and half of Ricky’s promotional representation, said, “We had 3,000 Brits’ purchase packages to come see this fight.”
And they were not the high and mighty members of Britian’s social structure. These were working type, who like ale, and like to chant.
** The following quote is translated from slurred British dialect to American English**
“I came over here to have me a good time,” said Donnie Webber, 29, of Mancehster, England, “I work as a stock boy but saved me money over a period of time to attend an event like this.”
Will he return for Hatton v. Castillo on June 2?
“We will see,” said Webber, “If I have the money, I am here. Castillo is better than he looked tonight.”
The arena was peppered with a sprinkling of Mexicans, as it is no secret, Castillo fans do not travel as well as those of Erik Morales, or icon Julio Cesar Chavez.
On June 2, expect a Thomas and Mack Center full of chanting Englishmen.
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Initial reports and rumoprs in Vegas were Jameel McCline quit in the second round against Valuev in Switzerland and one media type wiseguy worked the media room with his punch line for the supposed result.
“McCline just got signed by Alpo for a sponsorship deal,” chuckled the wiseguy.
Upon further research, the critic seems to be offbase as media reports state that McCline suffered a torn patella tendon.
Promoter Don King does not miss a beat, as he is quoted in the Australian, as saying, “Nikolai will beat every heavyweight in the world because he has just launched the kneecap-busting punch.”
Possibly next on tap for Valuev is the highly regarded Ruslan Chagaev. I found that HBO voice Harold Lederman thinks the lefthanded Chagaev, who is known as the “white Tyson,” will become a world heavyweight champion. Lederman just raves about Chagaev’s skills.
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Call me a mark. Call me a fan boy. Call me a testicle hugger if you must.
Juan Manuel Lopez continued his impressive beginnings as a professional. In his fifteenth professional contest, the product of Caguas, Puerto Rico, destroyed Cuauhtemoc Vargas Friday night on Shobox via sixth round technical knockout.
This guy is a tremendous mix of boxing and power and if I was a top dog in the super bantamweight division, I would be following this young man’s progress very closely, because Lopez disclosed to Boxing Confidential last week, “I will be ready for a championship fight in nine to ten months.”
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While looking around my 2 pm flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas flight on Saturday, the number of scantily voluptuous bombshells on board really caught my attention. The sex-trade is alive and well and US Airways would be smart to market their LAX to Vegas flights as the “Hooker Express”; johns can set up their dates right on the plane.