By Paul Strauss: Ricky Hatton demonstrated his popularity by packing the Manchester Stadium with his cheering fans. He started them off with a good chuckle by entering in his Ricky Fatton suit. He looked like 400lbs of baby blue with white fringe. When he wiggled out of it (with help), he looked fit and tough, ready to pounce.
Initially, Hatton looked sharp too, using his quicker hands to win rounds and punish Juan Lazcano. Lazcano enjoyed physical advantages of three inches in height, and seven inches in reach. But, Hatton would dart in and out, and side to side, landing his hooks both to the head and body. Lazcano proved to be plenty tough though, and also demonstrated the ability to do some rough-housing of his own, managing to manhandle Hatton occasionally. But, it was clear Hatton was winning rounds by doing more..
Referee Howard John Foster intruded upon the action several times, issuing warnings, as he would go through gyrations to make his points. It seemed at times to be overkill and unnecessary. In the eighth round, Hatton got a little too eager in his pursuit of the “Hispanic Causing Panic”, and he got clipped with another one of those “check hooks”; then another one and another.
Viewers knew he was hurt when they saw his legs wobble, and his head dropped forward, arms extended, trying instinctively to tie up. Lazcano started to salivate over the sitting duck, but before he could take advantage, there was Referee Foster again!
Foster stopped the action, and issued yet another warning to Lazcano (for what I’m not sure), while Hatton recuperated in a neutral corner. Before Foster decided to signal for action to resume, he noticed Hatton’s left boxing shoe (held up by Hatton) had untied lacing. So, he directed Hatton to return to his corner where the shoe lace could be re-tied. This all seemingly took a minute or more, more than enough time for Hatton to fully recover.
In the post fight interview, Hatton readily admitted he was hurt more than once in the fight. The reason he volunteered, was “(him) being over-eager when he thought he had Lazcano hurt.” He would rush in with abandon, and would get clipped. He further explained he was easily winning when he used his “under-rated boxing ability”, and that seemed to be the case.
When asked why he took those unnecessary chances, he quickly added that if he didn’t, it would make for a boring fight. Hatton is a refreshing ingredient to the fight game. He makes fun of himself (fat suit), mingles freely with the people (even on the way into the ring), and exhibits an honestly and genuine-ness that fans love. In this case, all 55,000 in attendance,
The Paulie Malignaggi versus Lovemore N’dou fight was ugly. Paulie blamed his poor performance on a (he claims) broken right hand he says happened in the 6th round. If he did break his hand, it would be interesting to know how he did it, because he certainly didn’t throw a hard enough right hand punch to break through tissue paper.
To make matters worse, his entrance was ridiculous, further alienating him to an already disinterested crowd. He chose to wear a mask of some kind. What it was supposed to signify, only he knows. Then when his garb was pealed off, he had what I guess are called “dreadlocks”, but of course they weren’t really his, but extensions. Apparently, he likes the Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs look?
These braided strands were tied together in a hawser like ponytail, which hung down way past his shoulders. Of course soon after the action began, the binding broke loose, and Rapunzel’s locks came falling down right in front of Paulie’s face,
Strangely enough Paulie never received a point deduction for this comedy, and was even allowed stops in the action to have the locks taped into place again. This procedure repeated itself several times. Finally, one of his corner-men pulled out the scissors and gave Paulie a shearing.
N”dou failed to put much together in the way of an attack, or even a counter attack, but he did manage to land a few good right hands. By the second half of the fight, he had landed enough to slow Paulie down, and turn the fight into a clinching match. By the end of the fight, Paulie wasn’t moving much, and almost stopped throwing his jab.
His post fight explanation was that he sustained his broken right hand. When asked why he didn’t at least use the “one good hand”, he said he thinks N’dou started picking up on the timing or rhythm of the jab, so he didn’t want to throw it and get countered. It would appear that it makes more sense to just be a target, but regardless, N’dou wasn’t interested in taking advantage of the situation, and would let Paulie walk in back into the ropes.
Despite everything, Malignaggi came away with a split decision, but more importantly, he failed to come away with the respect he wanted. Rather, his performance left a bad taste in the mouths of the Mancester fans. It’s hard to imagine that any of those Hatton fans think the “magic(less) man” is a worthy opponent for their hero.