Hatton, Malignaggi Win Decisions

Ricky Hatton (44-1) bounced back from the first loss of his professional career with a 12 round unanimous decision over Juan Lazcano (37-5-1) before a crowd of over 55,000 supporters at Manchester City Stadium in Manchester, England. The Hitman admitted to being nervous before the fight and looked a bit rusty in his first action since being stopped in ten rounds by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December. As always, Hatton's aggressive style made for an entertaining fight as he attacked recklessly at times and was staggered on a few occasions. One such occasion came in the tenth, when Lazcano connected with a solid left hook. Hatton was clearly hurt but British referee Howard Foster figured it was a good time to warn Lazcano for something or other and then allow Hatton's corner to take their sweet time re-tying one of his shoes. The nearly one-minute rest was more than enough time for Hatton to clear his head and resume fighting. It's good to be the hometown hero. Despite some rough patches, Hatton simply outworked Lazcano and earned a shutout (120-108) from two judges and a more accurate 118-110 from the third. Hatton clearly won but this was no shutout. Again, it's good to be the hometown hero.

On the undercard, IBF junior welterweight champ Paulie Malignaggi (25-1) won another 12 round decision over former champ Lovemore N'dou (46-10-1). The first time they met, Malignaggi won by a wide margin. This time, Malignaggi had to overcome his own stupidity and a possibly broken hand to manage a narrow split decision win. Malignaggi came into the fight with long braided hair extensions which kept flopping in his face and obscuring his vision. Trainer Buddy McGirt, who never should have allowed him to enter the ring with such a distraction on top of his head, finally cut off the extensions between rounds eight and nine. Compounding Malignaggi's problems were what he believed to be a broken knuckle on his troublesome right hand in the sixth round. The Magic Man possesses little offense when 100% healthy, so he was in full defense mode once he was injured. Scores were 116-112 and 116-113 for Malignaggi, and 115-114 for N'dou. Hopefully, no sanctioning body will require fight fans to endure Malignaggi-N'dou III.

Assuming Hatton and Malignaggi recover well from the damage they suffered in their respective wins, the two will likely meet in November in a unification bout (Hatton is the linear champ) matching distinctly contrasting styles. Hatton is a natural brawler while Malignaggi relies almost entirely on technical proficiency. Hatton is loved by his many fans for his common man substance and seeming disdain for anything resembling flash. Malignaggi, as evidenced by his apparent need to make a ridiculous fashion statement by wearing long hair extensions into the ring, is the anti-Hatton -- lots of flash and almost no ability to finish off an opponent (only two TKO wins in his last 23 fights). What they have in common is lots of heart and only one loss on their professional records (Malignaggi's lone loss came to Miguel Cotto in 2006).