Hatton dominates Malignaggi in 11th round stoppage victory

Ricky Hatton returned to Las Vegas on Saturday night, with thousands of his raucous British supporters in tow, to take on the #2 ranked junior welterweight challenger Paulie Malignaggi.  Hatton dominated Malignaggi over eleven rounds en route to a TKO victory, and the sound of his fans “There’s Only One Ricky Hatton” chant never stopped ringing through the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

With new trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr. in his corner, Hatton hurt Malignaggi early and never really let up.  After a fairly even first round—the only round that Malignaggi won on many scorecards—Hatton nailed his opponent in the 2nd with a wicked straight right that nearly sent Malignaggi to the canvas.  The American challenger grabbed on to Hatton to keep from going down, and would continue the “hugging and holding” for the rest of the fight.

Hatton seemed to realize early on that he was significantly stronger and his punches more powerful than Malignaggi and that nothing his opponent could throw at him could really hurt him.  Meanwhile, Malignaggi went against the conventional wisdom that he’d be best served using his speed and movement to “out-slick” Hatton by standing in front of him and trading.  Malignaggi would occasionally get a jab off first with his superior handspeed, but Hatton would simply slip the punch to retaliate with a more devastating power shot.  

Before the 11th round Malignaggi trainer Buddy McGirt told his fighter that if he didn’t start throwing punches he was going to end the fight.  McGirt was true to his word, and after Malignaggi started the frame by absorbing yet another barrage of Hatton power shots the veteran trainer threw in the towel to stop the fight.   This prompted a brief altercation with his fighter after the stoppage, but the veteran trainer made no apologies for pulling the plug:

"The reason I stopped the fight was because my guy was losing and I wanted him to live to fight another day. I didn't want him to get seriously injured. It only takes one shot. I would rather have him be mad at me for stopping the fight than let him get hurt and never fight again."

Malignaggi was still steamed over the early stoppage when interviewed by HBO’s Larry Merchant:

"Ricky fought a terrific fight. He's a terrific fighter but this goes as a knockout on my record, but it shouldn't be. I was worse off in the Miguel Cotto and they didn't stop it then; why should they stop it now?"

The reality of the situation is that McGirt did the right thing—his fighter was simply outclassed by Hatton and was doing nothing as the fight progressed other than take an increasingly one sided beating.  Hatton is too much of a gentleman to claim his superiority as a fighter; rather he praised his opponent’s toughness and credited the boxing wisdom of the Mayweather patriarch for his impressive win:

"I was in a new camp with Floyd and I showed a lot of my new stuff in this fight. I was getting frustrated in the fight because Paulie is a lot tougher fighter than you would think. I think I hurt him too early on but slowly but surely Floyd got me back to the new me."

Hatton’s likely next move is to wait for the winner of the December 6th showdown between Manny Pacquaio and Oscar De La Hoya.  Either opponent would create a compelling matchup for the pride of Manchester, and both would also provide a lucrative payday.