By Michael Collins: A huge crowd is expected for the March 17th fight between Matthew Hatton (42-5-2, 16 KO’s) and unbeaten Kell Brook (26-0, 18 KO’s) at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire. The arena was set for 9000, but after 5000 tickets were sold in the first few days after the fight was announced, promoter Eddie Hearn decided to open up the rest of the arena for what could be 13,500 fans if the fight continues to sell tickets at a rapid pace.
Brook, 25, is expected to win the fight and then move onto a title fight later on in 2012, likely against the winner of the Randall Bailey and Mike Jones. This will be the last fight for Brook against weaker opposition. He’s got to do what he has to do against the fringe contender Hatton and then look to fight his first real quality opponent of his career.
Hatton, #8 WBA, has won five out of his last six fights, albeit against B level opposition for the most part. He did defeat Yuriy Nuzhnenko by a 12 round decision in July 2010 in what has to be the best win of Hatton’s career. However, his last two wins over little known Euro level fighters Robert Belge and Andei Abramenka were far less impressive due to the quality of opposition. Last March, Hatton fought Saul Alvarez for the vacant WBC light middleweight title but was easily beaten by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 119-108, 119-108 and 119-108. Hatton doesn’t have a lot of speed or power. He’s more of a technician and inside body puncher. He’ll need to be able to box if he wants to keep from getting beaten up or badly hurt by Brook, because he hits hard and will have lots of chances to punish him.