This coming weekend sees the biggest fight of young Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s career, a much maligned WBC Light Middleweight title fight against the younger brother of Ricky “Hitman” Hatton. Canelo, the newest rising star of Mexican boxing is seen as the sports next superstar despite being just 20 years old, though already the youngster has recorded 36 fights (35-0-1) with other fights apparently having also been fought by him though not officially recorded. Canelo does everything a young boxer could want to do, he looks different, with some Irish blood in him some fiery red hair and fights like an experienced man. He’s somewhat squat at 5’9” for a Light Middleweight (he has been fighting almost inter-changeably between Welterweight and Light Middleweight) though is powerfully built, a “chunky” looking fighter who hits hard, accurate and forces the fight.
“Magic” Matthew Hatton was never expected to be able to reach the world scene, he was Ricky’s young brother and Ricky was the star. Though 29 year old who’s record of 41-4-2 was never spectacular, he’s managed to have a fantastic run over the past few years beating fighters who were expected to give him another loss. Matthew is unbeaten since a 2008 loss to Craig Watson and since then has has gone 8-0-1 with wins over Ben Tackie, Gianluca Branco and Yuriy Nuznenko as well as a controversial draw with Lovemore N’dou (which most felt Hatton had won). Although he’s not as good as Canelo, he has been long under-rated, he fights well, he lacks the fight changing power and hasn’t been stopped since 2003 (a 2nd round TKO to David Keir).
Canelo enters the bout as the red hot favorite (he’s priced at around 1/7) though Hatton is genuinely a live under-dog. He’s a fighter on a good run and in his “prime”, it’s not like Canelo’s recent “big name” opponents such as the 39 year old N’dou (the same one that Hatton “drew” with) and Carlos Manuel Baldomir (who was also 39). Though Hatton is a smaller man, he’s a career Welterweight needing to step up the Light Middleweight to face a fighter who will almost certainly end up fighting in or above Middleweight. Canelo is certainly the puncher in their as well and will be the fighter the crowd are behind (Californian fans will certainly back the young Mexican and not the Englishman). Canelo is expected by many to rip through Hatton in all honesty I see it being tougher than most, Canelo will probably score a stoppage late on, in the last 3 or 4 rounds after being frustrated by a Hatton who will move around and make things difficult. Matthew isn’t his brother and won’t be stood in front of Canelo to give and take, he’ll be moving and landing shots trying to steal the rounds early on. Canelo’s pressure and smart aggression will pay off later in the fight.
The fight has been criticized by the boxing fraternity for a bunch of reasons, namely why is this fight, which was contracted at 150lbs, being messed around with just days before the fight (reports are that the fight will now be a fully fledged 154lbs fight) and why is Hatton able to fight for a world title anyway? The WBC made the mistake of issuing their World title for the fight after it was signed to try and “gift” the belt to Canelo (who holds the WBC Silver title at the weight). As a result Hatton, who has rarely fought above 147, has managed to be given the opportunity of a life time. This has been criticized by many, including the camp of Ryan Rhodes who won a WBC Light Middleweight Title Eliminator over a year ago, and defended by others. The problem shouldn’t be that it’s a world title fight, the problem should just help us all to realize that with 4 titles we won’t have the top fighters facing off. Titles come and go just like fighters, so lets just watch it for what it is, a fight with one of the stars of the future.
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