This Saturday evening in Boston, Manchester's Ricky Hatton makes his first appearance at 147 pounds when he takes on WBA Welterweight champion Luis Collazo. The 27 year old Hatton is unbeaten in forty professional fights with thirty knockouts. He is also a former WBA and IBF junior welterweight champion having beaten the great Kostya Tszyu in 11 memorable rounds last June for the IBF strap then unifying by stopping Carlos Maussa in the ninth in Sheffield last November.

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It has certainly been an eventful year for Hatton, both in and out of the ring. Splits with promoters and legal issues have put a black cloud over his title reign. Even as this article is being written, there were doubts about whether this bout would be for the title.

Anyway enough of the legal issues, what about this fight coming up? For Hatton this could be a key year in his boxing career. There are many big fights that could be made for him at welterweight, with the likes of Carlos Boldomir, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah and of course Floyd Mayweather Jnr all attractive matches at welterweight. Hatton has even stated that he could still make 140 so the options are endless. However, he needs to win this Saturday to keep these dreams on track.

So what do we know about Collazo? With only one defeat in 27 bouts, he appears to have a respectable record. However with only twelve knockouts to his name, he doesn’t appear to be a big puncher and looking through his record there are only two people that could be classed as "name" opponents; Jose Rivera, who he defeated for the WBA title, and Miguel Angel Gonzalez, who has certainly seen better days.

Compare this to the men Hatton has defeated and it’s a no contest. Hatton in his eight year career has defeated the likes of Freddie Pendleton, Eamonn Magee, Vince Phillips, Ben Tackie, Ray Olivera, Kostya Tszyu and Carlos Mauusa. Arguably, apart from the Tszyu bout these opponents were also beaten conclusively.

Of course, Collazo could be a dark horse and push Hatton all the way. The factor of the unknown is always a dangerous one but if you compare punching power, resilience and quality of opposition ,then all roads lead to a Hatton win.

Its very likely that Collazo will never have faced someone who is as relentless as Hatton and who will make him all fight three minutes of every round. With that in mind. I've got to go for a Hatton win possibly as early as the middle rounds.

Click to read more boxing articles by Lee Bellfield

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