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HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

November 22, 2008

MGM Grand-Las Vegas, Nevada

The official attendance for this event is 9,053. Of those around 6,000 are people who flew from Great Britain to cheer for Ricky Hatton. His match with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. last year did 1.4 million PPV buys in Great Britain at 4 AM local time. That shattered the previous record of 750,000 for Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis. In the United States, which has 5-times the population of Great Britain the PPV did roughly 800,000 buys. Hatton had worked out a ridiculous deal where he got half of the total money on every buy over 800,000 in the UK, which since that would mean shattering the PPV record no one figured he would collect. Mayweather made $25 million from the US portion of the event and Hatton made $15 million. Once the buys from the UK were worked in Hatton ended up taking in over $30 million for the event and making more then Mayweather.

Ring Junior Welterweight/IBOLight Welterweight (140 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KO's, 140 pounds) (c) vs. Paulie Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KO's, 139 pounds)

Hatton won his Ring Championship from Kostya Tszyu via technical knockout at 3:00 of round 11 on June 4, 2005 at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England. Tszyu quit on his stool when he was still alive to win the match and physically able to continue safely to end his hall-of-fame career, after round 11. The relentless body punching and physical brawling style of Hatton had made Tszyu determine that he was done with this sport. That match has been named the greatest match in the history of Great Britain. That victory would lead The Ring to name Hatton its Fighter of the Year for 2005. Hatton is making his fifth defense of this title.

The resident of Manchester, England won his IBO Championship when it was vacant in a 12-round blowout decision over Juan Urango on January 20, 2007 at Paris Las Vegas in Las Vegas. The previous champion was Stevie Johnston, who vacated this belt, because it is relatively worthless. Hatton is making his third defense of this title.

Hatton's last match was a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Juan Lazcano on May 24, 2008 at City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. Hatton dominated the match on the judges' scorecards with 2 judges giving Hatton the maximum 120 points for the match. However, Hatton showed signs of decline in the match for the first time in his career. Hatton was badly hurt by a left hook with 1:12 to go in round 10 and looked on the verge of being knocked out. Luckily for Hatton, the referee for that match was terrible and seemed to be working to protect Hatton. Hatton began to hold on to recover. Then, with 54 seconds to go in the round and Hatton still badly hurt, the referee stopped the action to admonish Lazcano for pushing down on Hatton's head as the champion clinched. That bought Hatton valuable time to recover. Then as the referee was about to restart the action, he noticed Hatton's shoe was untied. It then took about a minute for Hatton's corner to retie his shoe. Therefore when the action resumed, Hatton had fully recovered and was back on offense. Somehow Hatton won that round on 1 of the judge's scorecards, 10-9, while another scored it even, 10-10. The full recap of that match, which includes a recap of Malignaggi's last match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/11/23/recap-of-ricky-hatton-and-paulie-maignaggis-last-match.html

The Manchester resident's longtime trainer was forced into retirement following that match. As well documented in the HBO mini-series Mayweather/Hatton 24/7, continuing to train Hatton was causing him extreme pain. Therefore, it was arguably the right time for him to step aside to make sure he still had a quality life for the rest of his years. Replacing Hatton's previous trainer is Floyd, Mayweather, Sr. Senior was shown sending tips to Hatton through Oscar De La Hoya on how the Englishman could defeat his son, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. during the 24/7 series. With Hatton signed to Golden Boy Promotions and the Englishman already having a tangential relationship with Senior the move to him as trainer made a lot of sense. Hatton said the move is going to make him box more. That means Hatton intends to use his jab more and work to stay out of the way of punches, rather then brawl. Hatton has said this same thing before almost all of his matches for the last several years and by the end of the match he is brawling. Senior is a good trainer, but being a brawler is what has made Hatton an exciting crowd pleasing boxer. Hatton has occasionally started out matches by boxing well for several rounds, but usually gets frustrated by round 7 and returns to brawling. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Hatton is The Ring Champion at 140 pounds and had been ranked in The Ring's top 10 pound-for-pound list for months prior to his victory over Lazcano. Hatton's showing was so poor in that match that he dropped out of the top 10 pound-for-pound rankings, which he had stayed in despite his high profile technical knockout loss to Junior on December 8, 2007 at the MGM Grand.

Malignaggi had to forfeit his IBF 140 pound championship to take this match with Hatton. The IBF had ordered Malignaggi to take a rematch with Herman Ngoudjo. The Brooklyn, New York native beat Ngoudjo in a controversial 12-round unanimous decision on January 5, 2008 at Ballys Park Place Hotel Casinoin Atlantic City, New Jersey. That made the decision to bypass the mandatory defense for the higher paying match with Hatton easy. Now, both Malignaggi and Hatton have lost the IBF title at 140 pounds without being defeated for it in the ring.

Malignaggi's last match was another controversial 12-round unanimous decision victory. On the same card that featured Hatton-Lazcano, Malignaggi rematched Lovemore N'dou, who Malignaggi had originally beaten to win his championship. In their first meeting, Malignaggi was dominant scoring a knockdown and easily taking the unanimous decision. Malignaggi was coming back from 3 surgeries to repair 9 broken bones and several ligament tears in his right hand to take the title from N'dou. The win was so impressive that The Ring named Malignaggi as their Comeback of the Year for 2007. A recap of Malignaggi-N'dou I can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/11/23/recap-of-paulie-malinaggi-vs-lovemore-ndou-i.html

In the rematch, almost everything went wrong for Malignaggi. Malignaggi knew that his job was to play the arrogant heel in Manchester. Therefore, he danced to the ring in a luchador's mask. Once he reached the ring, Malignaggi removed the mask to reveal a whacky set of braids he had put in his hair that Kevin Federline would have thought no white guy should try and pull off. Malignaggi had the braids pulled back in a ponytail, but had never tried out the new look in sparring. That meant Malignaggi was shocked when his hair came lose in round 1 and was impeding his vision. Malignaggi probably lost 2 rounds, because he could not see with the hair in his eyes. Therefore, Malignaggi got an impromptu haircut from his trainer in the break following round 8. To complicate matters, Malignaggi broke his right hand, again in round 2. This forced Malignaggi to box an uglyleft jab and run style that became uglier as the match went on and the pain in his right hand got worse. Malignaggi was still able to win the match in a controversial 12-round split decision. The Brooklyn native had to have a fourth surgery on his right hand after the match and had the hand casted for a few months. However, Malignaggi says everything is finally fully healed.

Malignaggi is The Ring's number 1 contender at 140 pounds.

At 27-years-old, Malignaggi isactually about 2 years younger then the 30-year-old Hatton. Malignaggi turns 28-years-old on Sunday, which depending on how you adjust for the time change is about an hour after theywill hit the ring in Brooklyn. The birthday boy has the height advantage standing 5' 7" tall, while Hatton stands 5' 6" tall. Malignaggi has the reach advantage with a 23" arm length, compared to Hatton's 20" arm length. Hatton will be the larger boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 152 pounds approaching match time. Malignaggi has only unofficially rehydrated to 149 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. Hatton is a 2-to-1 betting favorite. However, Hatton's loyal fan base that always travel to Las Vegas for his matches heavily slant the betting lines in his favor. In a vacuum, the line on this match would be much closer. probably around 3-to-2 for Hatton.

All of the official judges scoring this match from ringside are from Nevada. The referee is Kenny Bayless.

Malignaggi's jab wins a close round 1, 10-9. After round 1, Hatton has some swelling developing under his left eye. Lederman scores round 1 for Malignaggi, 10-9. Hatton charged in a few times in the latter half of round 2 and caught Malignaggi with good punches that hurt the American. This is the same old Hatton that wins round 2, 10-9. In the last 30 seconds of round 2, Malignaggi was cut below his left eye. It may have been caused by a punch. However, blood from headbutts in Hatton matches are more the norm then the exception. Lederman scores round 2 for Hatton, 10-9. The brawler wins round 3, 10-9, and is ahead on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 29-28. Hatton tried to box round 1 and come in behind his jab. That failed. When Hatton abandoned that game-plan in the second half of round 2 and reverted to being the usual Hatton, he has been in control of this match. Lederman scores round 3 for Hatton, 10-9,and has the Englishman ahead on his scorecard after 3 rounds, 29-28.

There is a few second delay to start round 4 for Hatton's corner to be cleared. Hatton wins round 4, 10-9. The Englishman is notorious for holding. However, in the early rounds Malignaggi has been doing the majority of the holding. Lederman scores round 4 for Hatton, 10-9. Hatton wins an ugly brawling round 5, 10-9. Malignaggi is completely unable to deal with the brawling style match Hatton has forced him into, so far. The champion takes round 5 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Malignaggi out-lands Hatton in round 6. However, Hatton is more aggressive in the round and takes it, 10-9. After 6 rounds, Hatton leads on my scorecard, 59-55. Lederman scored round 6 for Hatton, 10-9, and has the champion ahead after 6 rounds, 59-55.

Hatton dominates round 7 and wins it, 10-9. The champion is showing no signs of conditioning problems in this match. He appears fresher after 7 rounds then he did when the bell rang to start the match and he has gone hard the entire match. Lederman has Hatton winning round 7, 10-9. Hatton wins round 8 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. In the last few rounds Malignaggi's body language has started looking bad. It appears that the American no longer thinks he can win this match. With 2:22 to go in round 9, the referee calls timeout to have some lose tape on the right glove of Hatton re-taped. Hatton sensing he has Malignaggi hurt rushes to have his glove fixed so he can get back to the action. This is in stark contrast to when he was hurt versus Lazcano and it seemingly took an eternity for the Englishman's shoe to be retied. It still takes about 15 seconds for them to tend to the glove and they do a terrible job re-taping it, because they are rushing. Malignaggi's face is a mess with swelling around both eyes and the cut below his left eye. Hatton takes round 9, 10-9. The champion leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 89-82. Hatton has won every round since this match was turned into the traditional Hatton brawl. Lederman scores round 9 for Hatton, 10-9, and has the Manchester resident ahead after 9 rounds, 89-82.

Hatton wins round 10 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. In the corner after round 10, Malignaggi's trainer warned the boxer that he may stop the match if Malignaggi continued to take unprotected punches. With 2:14 to go in round 11, Malignaggi's corner has thrown in the towel. Malignaggi had just taken several clean punches and then tied up Hatton by grabbing the Englishman's leg. Malignaggi has no punching power, and appeared to be mentally beat. Therefore, the corner stoppage seems justified. However, Malignaggi is unhappy with it.

The final outcome from Michael Buffer is that: at 48 seconds of round 11 the referee has called a stop to this contest making the winner by technical knockout and still the IBO Light Welterweight and Ring Junior Welterweight Champion of the World, Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton. The win moves Hatton to 45-1 with now 32 wins coming by way of knockout.

The final punchstat numbers have Hatton landing 124 of the 516 total punches he threw, for a 24% total connect percentage. Hatton landed 99 of the 377 power punches he threw, for a 26% power connect percentage. Malignaggi landed 91 of the 342 total punches he threw for a 27% total connect percentage. The vanquished challenger landed only 25 of the 133 power punches he threw, for a 19% power connect percentage.

Hatton in his post match interview said he wants the winner of De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao. He finished by saying that no one will ever beat him at 140 pounds. Therefore he will continue to move to 147 pounds to face bigger challenges.

Malignaggi said in his post match interview that he knew he was behind on the scorecard and probably needed a knockout to win. However, Malignaggi felt he deserved better then a stoppage loss and was not that hurt.

Hatton was as good as he has ever been in this match. He was never winded in the entire match and none of the flaws he showed against Lazcano appeared in this match. However, he still appears to be the same old Hatton, which is a good thing. His next match will probably be against Pacquiao at 140 pounds sometime in the March-May window. Hatton has probably missed his chance to face De La Hoya. The Englishman was offered he opportunity to fill in for Mayweather when Junior pulled out of the scheduled match with De La Hoya in September. However, Hatton said the 4 month turn around time between matches was too short. That meant Hatton had gotten too out of shape to be ready to compete on roughly 3 months notice. He showed up for this training camp in the neighborhood of 183 pounds.ESPN.com ran a story a few months ago on active boxers that are going to be in the hall-of-fame. Hatton was listed as a borderline case, but that he would probably make it. They said he needed to beat Malignaggi and maybe make 1 or 2 more defenses of his Ring Championship at 140 pounds to secure his place in the hall-of-fame. His dominant performance here did a lot to help his case. A win over De La Hoya could have done a lot to help cement his legacy among the casual boxing fans in the United States and helped his resume. If Hatton can beat Pacquiao there will be no denying Hatton as one of the great boxers of this generation.

Malignaggi was bad in this match. However, that probably had a lot more to do with Hatton then him being an overrated boxer. Malignaggi has not beaten the quality opposition Hatton has, but he has beaten good opponents. Hatton is simply the best 140-pounder in the world and Malignaggi was unable to match the brawler's strength. It is unlikely Malignaggi will drop much in the new 140-pound rankings that come out this week. He is still a solid technical boxer. However, like every other 140-pounder in boxing he has failed to defeat Hatton.

The Hatton match is something that should be watched, because it is involving a probable future hall-of-famer. However, judging the match purely on its boxing action, it is not pretty and would otherwise be a skip.