22.11.08

Round by Round: Hatton v. Malignaggi

It's time for the main event between Ricky Hatton and Paul Malignaggi. The Ricky Hatton followers are in full effect tonight. Their band music and chants can be heard loud and clear. Malignaggi comes to the ring first to a chorus of boos from the pro-Hatton crowd.

Hatton now enters. It is said that he had to trim 40 pounds for this fight due to his bad habits between fights. Hatton does not enter to his trademark remake of "Blue Moon" but trades to a song made for him called "Ricky Fatton." He is wearing large pads to make him look 50 pounds heavier. As he enters the ring, "Ricky Fatton" ends and "Blue Moon" comes on.

David Beckham is in attendance.

Malignaggi is 25-1 with five KO's and Hatton is 44-1 with 31 KO's. The intros are finished and it's time to fight.

Round One
Hatton starts off establishing the jab. Malignaggi lands a jab and dips away from the counter punch. Malignaggi is using good movement and getting out of the way. He lands a jab and a right hook. Hatton hasn't landed anything big yet. Hatton catches Malignaggi with an uppercut on the inside, but Malignaggi responds with two good jabs. Hatton misses with a jab. Hatton has clinched a few times in this round.

Spartan117: 10-9 Malignaggi
Uatu: 10-9 Malignaggi

Round Two
Hatton throws a combo but Malignaggi dodges all of it. Malignaggi lands a jab and feints away. Malignagge tags Hatton with a right hook as Hatton comes forward. Malignaggi lands another jab followed by a right hook. Hatton lands a big left that snaps the head of Malignaggi. Hatton lands a right as they break from a clinch. Malignaggi gets tagged with a huge right hand and has to hold on. Hatton lands a left-right combo and Malignaggi looks hurt. He gets his legs back and makes it out of the round.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round Three
Malignaggi goes back to the jab. Hatton is throwing big bombs but missing with most of them. Malignaggi starts to throw the double jab. Hatton lands as Malignaggi tries to duck away. A cut is opened on the bridge of the nose of Malignaggi. It doesn't look like anything serious. There is a lot of clinching in this round and a lot of punches being thrown in the clinch. Malignaggi is the one starting the clinching rather than Hatton, who was expected to hold. Hatton lands a big left hook and the crowd cheers.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round Four
Malignaggi lands another jab, but Hatton is coming through them and tagging Malignaggi with stronger shots. Hatton is chasing Malignaggi while he is backing up. Hatton lands a good left hook - he's really landing the stronger shots. The crowd starts to boo because of the clinching. Malignaggi throws a big left uppercut but misses by a lot. Malignaggi has been holding like crazy.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round Five
Hatton comes forward with his jab and Malignaggi clinches so he doesn't take punishment. Malignaggi doesn't look like he has any way of slowing Hatton down. Ricky leads with his jab and tries to follow with more but his opponent clinches again. Hatton lunges with an uppercut but Malignaggi dodges. Hatton is choosing his punches wisely. His hand speed looks good. Hatton lands a right hook as they fight out of a clinch. Malignaggi needs to do more if he wants to win this fight.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round Six
Hatton comes right out and lands a stiff jab and a right hook. Malignaggi lands a jab. He is now using more movement and clinching less, but he is throwing one jab and that's about it. Hatton lands two good lefts that look like they hurt Malignaggi. Now Malignaggi clinches again. Hatton is trying to get in and trade but Malignaggi either dips away or holds.

Spatan117: 10-9 Malignaggi
Uatu: 10-9 Malignaggi

Round Seven
Hatton comes forward again. Malignaggi lands a good right uppercut. Hatton is now throwing big combos and landing a lot of lefts. Malignaggi is taking the most punches in this round. Malignaggi goes back to work with the double jab; Hatton answers with a good jab. Hatton measures up a power right but Malignaggi dodges. Hatton doesn't look like he's getting tired, and he lands a big left hand before the bell.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round Eight
Malignaggi is using better movement in the beginning of this round. He lands a great right hand and Hatton staggers. Hatton comes forward again but Malignaggi clinches. Hatton backs him up with a big left hand. The two clinch again. Hatton is fighting out of clinches well. Hatton rocks Malignaggi with a left and uppercut. He looks shaken up. Malignaggi recovers to land a left-right combo.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round Nine
There is a bruise under Malignaggi's eye. Hatton lands a good left hook and Malignaggi sticks his tongue out. The ref stops the clock to fix the tape on Hatton's gloves. Hatton comes back throwing haymakers. Hatton continues to land the left, while Malignaggi keeps clinching to stop the punishment. Hatton comes forward with a right that scores. Malignaggi's legs look a little shaky.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round 10
Malignaggi is sticking to his jab and not throwing any right hands. Hatton tags him with a good combo. Hatton looks like he wants to end the fight. Malignaggi looks more tired at this point, and he goes back to clinching. Hatton is doing his best to push him away so he can get back to boxing. Malignaggi is not doing anything to score. He is clinching now more than ever.

Spartan117: 10-9 Hatton
Uatu: 10-9 Hatton

Round 11
Malignaggi is now really running away from Hatton. Hatton comes forward and lands two big left hands. Malignaggi isn't doing anything except clinching. Malignaggi's trainer, Buddy McGirt, is now on the ring apron, and he throws in the towel! Malignaggi pushes his trainer away and complains about his decision.

The winner by TKO at 0:48 of Round 11... Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton.

Hatton laughs in the post-fight interview and says he enjoyed this fight much more than his last one. He says Floyd Sr. got him out of his old bad habits. He gives Malignaggi credit and says he's a tough fighter. Hatton says that he had Malignaggi discouraged early on in the fight. He says he would like to see the winner of De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao.

Malignaggi says that not much surprised him about Hatton. He says Hatton used good movement to get out of the way of his jabs. The British fans start to boo Malignaggi. He applauds the fans and says they make the festivities more fun. Malignaggi says that he was hurt worse in the Cotto fight and he didn't want to see a KO on his record.

13 comments:

uatu said...

i said blue moon. I SAID BLUE MOON!

for a second there I thought he wasn't going to come out to Blue Moon and I would have been supremely disappointed.

uatu said...

hatton is certainly not fighting with the shoulder roll mayweather style.

uatu said...

I agree with Lennox. Paulie is actually doing the holding.

ICUH8N said...

Paulie is definitly doing the holding. He's not boxing enough. He won't outbrawl Hatton.

uatu said...

there's so much holding, it's very difficult to score a round like the fifth. that round was bad to watch.

ICUH8N said...

I got it 4-2 Hatton halfway through the fight... Paulie won the 1st and 6th. Hatton is the aggressor with the harder cleaner punches landed. Paulie is holding and really only landing his jab.

uatu said...

I guess Paulie doesn't have one of those check hooks like Floyd used to knock Hatton out. He could use something like that right now.

ICUH8N said...

Hatton is actually impressing me. I've never been impressed by him except against Castillo. I give him his props. Looks like I'm going to be out 20 bucks. The casinos need it more than I do anyways, lol.

uatu said...

I would've bet Paulie too, but not with a huge amount of conviction. It's hard to feel super confident betting on someone who doesn't have that opporunity to win it with one punch.

ICUH8N said...

I bet 20 bucks on fights I think the underdog has somewhat of a chance (I won with hopkins, but lost with Roy Jones). I'm gonna bet on Pacquiao too. Casino is right down the street from me, very convenient for me. Well there it is, Hatton wins, 11th round TKO. Congrats to him.

uatu said...

I must agree that Hatton was somewhat impressive. He has earned another fight worth watching in my opinion.

Yeah I totally agree with that strategy. I didn't like Jones at all, but watching these episodes of 24/7 Manny looks strong and ready for the upset.

spartan117 said...

Malignaggi was out of line for getting angry with McGirt. I understand that no fighter wants to see their trainer throw in the towel, but there was no way he was going to knock out Hatton. It was a good stoppage.

uatu said...

I think it was a good stoppage, in that he wasn't going to win, but I also agree with Paulie, that he wasn't in any real trouble either. Paulie has a lot of pride and didn't want the stoppage on his record. so this was tough call either way.