Last night, Ricky “Hitman” Hatton put his undefeated record and IBO Light Welterweight title on the line against Jose Luis “El Terrible” Castillo, before the over 13,000 in attendance at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
With nearly 10,000 British Hatton fans expected in Las Vegas for the event, it was obvious that most of them made it since the crowd was unmistakably pro Hatton, easily drowning out any support that was present for his opponent.
A rough estimate, based on the crowd response, would put the support at about 3-1 in favor of Hatton. Their raw enthusiasm was contagious, as they came with their own band, complete with its own horn and percussion section, chanted the Ricky Hatton theme song at every opportunity and cheered wildly with every connected blow.
The fight opened with high energy as both fighters met in the center of the ring. From the beginning, most of the action took place in close quarters. Ricky, with the obviously quicker hands, seemed to consistently connect first, while Castillo seemed to be most effective in the clinches, primarily throwing uppercuts while they were tied up.
As the first round continued, Hatton seemed to be landing the cleaner punches; both on the way in, as well as on the way out. As long as there was space to move, Hatton’s hand speed seemed too much for Castillo.
The second round opened again, like the first, with both men meeting in the center of the ring. In the early going, Hatton seemed to be more aggressive with his power punches, especially his left hook, while Castillo was still landing his most effective punches in the clinches, throwing the uppercut repeatedly while both men were partially tied up.
The second continued in a similar pattern, until in the last minute of the round, Hatton began to land very effective, very hard punches. By the end of the frame, his left hook seemed to be finding the target regularly, and his body attack was beginning to get on track. The second ends with Hatton in control of the round and the fight.
Most of the third round was spent with each fighter’s head on the other’s shoulder. While both fighters were landing good shots, it was a style that seemed to suit Castillo better as it enabled him to land some of his most effective blows of the night.
While difficult to see inside clearly, the sight of one fighter’s head bobbing up suddenly, then the other’s, provided a clear indication of the action. Nearing the end of the round, Castillo was warned for low blows. The third ends with both fighters throwing and landing punches with bad intentions.
Ricky opened round four aggressively and landed the harder, cleaner punches right from the beginning of the round. Using any open space available, Ricky forced the attack and kept the pressure on Castillo. Halfway through the round, Castillo had a point deducted for low blows, but it didn’t seem to faze Hatton in the least.
He continued his attack with hard blows to the body, until with nearly a minute left in the round, he connected with a left hook to the liver, which sent Castillo down for the full 10 count as the crowd erupted in celebration.
The official stoppage was by knockout at 2:16 of the fourth round.
While an impressive fight for Hatton, it didn’t take long for his attention to turn toward the future. In the post fight press conference, Hatton named Malignaggi, Cotto and Mayweather as potential future opponents, and stated that from here on he would like to fight only world champions or the pound-for-pound best.
At this point a possible fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is clearly up to the “Pretty Boy”. In a recent interview Roger Mayweather, Floyd’s uncle and trainer, named two conditions that would be necessary for Floyd to consider such a fight. First, that Ricky beat Castillo convincingly. Second, that the money for such a fight be worthwhile. After Ricky’s performance, both requirements certainly seem to have been met.
Undercard bouts:
Welterweights: Matthew Hatton improves to 31-3-1 (12) with a unanimous decision victory via cores of 115-113, 117-111 and 115-112 over Edwin Vazquez , who drops to 22-10-2 (8).
Super middleweights: Fulgencio Zuniga improves to 19-2-1 (16) in a unanimous decision victory with scores of 97-90, 97-89 and 98-88 over Antwun Echols, who falls to 31-7-3 (27).
Junior welterweights: Ruslan Provodnikov improves to 4-0 (3) with a first round TKO at 1:46 of the first round over Willie Diamond, who drops to 7-9-1 (3).
Super featherweights: Femi Fehintola improves to 16-1 (1) in a majority decision with scores of 38-38, 39-37 and 40-36 against Barbaro Zepeda, who sees his record go to 8-15-1 (2).
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