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May 14, 2006

By Richard Fletcher

Catching Ricky Hatton's fight with Luis Collazo the old-fashioned way - on radio overnight in the the UK - I must say I was surprised he got the verdict. Despite flooring Collazo in the first 15 seconds, Hatton seemed to struggle thereafter, getting caught frequently by his slick southpaw opponent and, I thought, almost stopped in a desperate last round. My immediate thought was what was going through the mind of Floyd Mayweather, who might now fancy taking on Hatton sooner rather than later.

The BBC radio commentary team of Mike Costello and former super middleweight champ Richie Woodhall seemed to convey that Hatton had a very tough time indeed. Costello suggested Collazo might have done enough to pull off an upset while Woodhall had it a draw. I honestly expected MC Michael Buffer to announce "...and still" but it just goes to show how influenced you can be by a commentary when you can't see the action. Maybe if I'd been ringside, or watched the fight on HBO or Sky TV, neither of which were available to me, I would have thought differently.

But still, I don't think Hatton quite made the impact he was hoping for in his first major fight in the U.S. The step-up to welterweight clearly made a bigger difference than most people expected, as did Collazo's southpaw style. Woodhall said he thought Hatton found it a lot harder to make his punches tell at the higher weight.

Afterwards, Hatton told HBO's Larry Merchant he thought he was still a natural light-welter and that the punches coming back at him were definitely harder. But he had moved up, he said, because all the other big names had done the same.

There was a time, though, when I thought all the big plans were going to go out of the window as Hatton kept getting caught by the sharper, more accurate punching of Collazo. I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing, particularly when Collazo piled on the pressure in the last round. But Hatton, although enjoying what Costello descibed as "sporadic" success, kept coming. He began to get to Collazo more in the late rounds after losing his way in the middle of the fight. But in the last, as Collazo upped the tempo, Costello relayed that Hatton "had nothing left to give".

Some of the estimated 5,000 British fans must have thought the same and breathed a sigh of relief when the decision was announced. It hadn't been vintage Hatton, far from it, but when all is said and done, a win is a win and Hatton can move on with his career.
Collazo's pleas for a rematch, though, are likely to be ignored. Hatton's trainer, Billy Graham, had expressed reservations about Collazo before the fight was signed and the Hatton camp will not be eager to give the American a second chance, even in England.

But Mayweather is another matter entirely and many observers will now make Pretty Boy an even clearer favourite if and when he meets Hatton. But for Hatton, it will be a different night, a different opponent and a different strategy. Whereas Hatton was heavily favoured to beat Collazo, he will start as underdog against Mayweather and that could drive him to produce the sort of performance that unseated Kostya Tszyu last summer.

Although he struggled, Hatton did win his third world title in consecutive fights, an historic achievement in itself. But if he has many more fights like the one with Collazo, Hatton's career won't have long left to run. All roads seem to lead to Mayweather, even though many will now give Hatton even less chance of getting past him.