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This Saturday night, Manchester’s Ricky Hatton makes his Las Vegas debut when he tries to annex his old IBF Junior Welterweight Championship from unbeaten Colombian, Juan Urango. Come fight night, Hatton will be stepping into the ring following eight months of inactivity, the longest of his professional career. |
Unbeaten in 41 bouts, Hatton’s greatest night came in June 2005 when in a compelling bout, he ripped the 140 pound title from Australian great Kostya Tszyu in 11 brutal rounds. Since then, Hatton has picked up the WBA 140 pound title with a ninth round knockout of Colombian toughman Carlos Maussa and the WBA 147 pound title with a points verdict over American Luis Collazo last May.
Once again, Hatton finds himself in the challenger’s role and I’ve a feeling that he won’t have things his own way against Urango. Also unbeaten, with 17 wins and 1 draw, Urango is generally unknown to the casual fan. After early bouts in Spain and Columbia, the champion based himself in Florida and after winning the Latin American version of the 140 pound crown, he found himself pitched into a fight for Hatton’s old title against the crafty Australian, Ben Rabah.
In a close fight, Urango won a 12 round decision and now faces old champion Hatton in his first defence. With 13 KO’s in his 17 wins, Urango has power that should be respected and appears to be a very capable fighter. However, reports have been surfacing that Hatton has been looking red hot in training and is happy to be back in his old weight class.
In his last fight at 147, the 5 foot 6 Hatton seemed to fade against Collazo after a bright start. Although the shorter man again in his title challenge, I feel that Hatton has enough big fight experience come Saturday night to win back his old title. But I do feel that he may have to go the full distance to do it. Hopefully about between Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo will be next.
