Canelo Batters Hatton for 12 Rounds, Earns Decision

ANAHEIM, California– After tonight, Matthew Hatton (41-5-2, 16 KOs) can make a solid argument that his chin gives him one boxing attribute over older and more accomplished brother Ricky. That trait ensured that Matthew Hatton was able to survive 12 very lopsided rounds last night to popular Mexican prospect Saul Alvarez (36-0-1, 26 KOs).

Alvarez was much bigger physically than Hatton, who was competing for the first time above the welterweight limit. Hatton tried to assert himself early by winging wild left hooks. Alvarez was much more accurate, bloodying Hatton’s nose in the second round with an assortment of right and left hooks. In these early rounds Alvarez found a home for digging left hooks to the body, which would be his most consistent blow for the remainder of the fight. That punch would double Hatton over, causing him to immediately move away or clinch throughout the contest.

To his credit, Hatton always fired back whenever the fight seemed to be on the verge of a stoppage. Even though Hatton landed flush several times, his punches had no effect on the naturally bigger Alvarez, who failed to make the contracted weight of 150 pounds yesterday. Canelo showed no respect for Hatton offense, and simply waded in with low hands to land his own more damaging offense. One of the few reprieves from the beating came in the seventh, when Alvarez was deducted a point for hitting Hatton on a break in retaliation for a low blow. Hatton took a knee and a breather, and that enabled him to survive a round puncutated by another barrage of Canelo power shots.

The only suspense in the championship rounds was whether Hatton would see the final bell. Despite being rocked several times, Hatton now relied more frequently on clinching and headlocks to keep Alvarez frustrated. The tactics worked, and the tough UK fighter just barely made it after being wobbled in the last 30 seconds of the 12th.

Scores were unanimous for Alvarez with 119-108, crowning him with his first title of WBC junior middleweight champion.

The 20-year-old Alvarez brought out over 10,000 fans to the Honda Center, and proclaimed his hope to move towards elite competition within two more fights.

On the undercard, Adrien Broner (21-0, 16 KOs) took an unpopular decision over Daniel Ponce de Leon (41-3, 34 KOs). The pro-Mexican crowd was firmly behind Ponce de Leon, who controlled the early rounds by outworking Broner with power shots on the inside. In the middle rounds, Broner showboated and made it an outside fight. He easily potshotted Ponce de Leon with counter straight rights and uppercuts. Down the stretch the rounds were close, with Ponce de Leon appearing to gain an edge with his harder punches, aggression and output. The judges’ unanimous decision scores (96-94 twice, 99-91) for Broner were booed lustily, and caused HBO’s Max Kellerman to proclaim “like Ed Lover would say…c’mon son!”

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Decent card tonight. I did an in-depth piece on Canelo and Hatton over at AllHipHop that you can check out. I think Canelo is good for the sport; how many other prospects do we have today that can put over 10,000 PAYING people in an arena? That’s why you have HBO and Golden Boy pushing so hard for him. He’ll be a good attraction. However, I’m not sold on if he’ll end up being a good fighter. I’ve seen Canelo live before, and I’m just not that impressed yet. Even though he has a belt, and he told me he wants the big names, he shouldn’t be put anywhere near the elite guys for at least another year. In the meantime, Golden Boy has an attraction that HBO will always have an available TV date for.