Ricky Hatton bounced back from his only ever defeat to retain his
IBO light- welterweight title with a scrappy points win over Mexican American
Juan Lazcano of Sacramento, CA.
Hatton was fighting for the first time since being knocked out in the tenth round by Floyd Mayweather in December.
But he put that defeat to bed with a dominant victory against a tough opponent winning by unanimous decision.
Referee Backlash?
If Hatton thought Joe Cortez was unfair and too firm during his clash with Mayweather, then he was given an early Christmas gift with todays home town referee. This time, Lazcano lived up to his moniker and caused some panic for Hatton in the 8th round when Lazcano had Hatton hurt and holding on. However, the referee stopped the action to scold Lazcano for holding, then gave Hatton extra time to tie his shoe.
Nonetheless, Hatton put on an exciting performance clearly beating the tough but limited Lazcano.
The victory sets up a possible showdown with Paule Malignaggi who stuttered to a points victory over Lovemore N'Dou. The fight was just as league member Knucklehead 2-0 ( 0 KOs ) 44 points predicted, "Granite jaw versus a powder puff puncher? Only one possible result in this fight as far as I can see. Malignaggi by decision, just like last time"
The only difference was that Paulie broke his right hand in the 6th round which made his performance less than stellar.
League Predictions
You have to hand it to boxerharris86 2-0 ( 0 KOs ) 44 points who saw the Malignaggi fight turning into a hairy situation when he predicted, "The only thing that is going to change about this fight is Paulie's hair style." Malignaggi's corner had to cut his dreadlocks off, giving Paulie a haircut in between the rounds because the dreadlocks were falling over his face not allowing Paulie to see. That sure did give new meaning to the word "cut man".
Most LiverPuncher members came up on 44 total points for these two fights, congrats to all of you. Since the Shane Mosely vs Zab Judah fight was cancelled, the next fights are scheduled to take place all on the same night of June 7th. The list of fights below are currently available for predictions. Be sure to get your predictions in before fight time, as the polls close at 4pm the day of the fight!
Upcoming Fights on June 7th
Kelly
Pavlik vs. Gary Lockett,
Daniel Ponce De Leon vs. Juan Manuel Lopez
Vernon
Forrest vs. Sergio Mora
Carlos Quintana vs. Paul Williams, rematch
 |
