By Terence Dooley

Manchester’s ‘Magic’ Matthew Hatton was left disgusted and disappointed in November of last year after drawing with Lovemore N’dou for the IBO welterweight title.  Hatton, younger brother of Ricky, felt that he had won the fight handily only to be denied by scores of 115-114,114-115 and 114-114.  Matthew, however, put the disappointment behind him in March when defeating Gianluca Branco for the vacant EBU 147lb belt, the 29-year-old takes on Ukraine’s Yuriy Nuzhnenko in his first defence of the title, topping a Hatton Promotions Sky Sports televised show at the Bolton Arena on July the 9th.

Earlier this year, Matthew split with trainer Lee Beard and hooked up with local legend Bob Shannon prior to a February run out against Georgia’s Mikheil Khutsishvili, a fifth round TKO, the fighter trains out of the Hatton gym in Hyde but sometimes shuttles over to Shannon’s sweatbox of a gym in order to mix things up.  This move has focussed Hatton’s mind ahead of his maiden defence.

“I enjoying training at our gym in Hyde”, enthused the former IBF inter-continental title holder while speaking to BoxingScene.com, “the facilities are absolutely fantastic.  A ring is a ring, I enjoying coming down here to Bob’s gym and training up in Hyde for different reasons.  There is a great atmosphere in both places and it is going well.”

Hatton feels comfortable in his new role as EBU champion; the 39-4-2 (15 early) boxer had wanted to go for the domestic title only for a projected fight with Kell Brook to come to nought.  The IBO opportunity against Lovemore more than made up for the domestic shutout only for Hatton to be left angry by the outcome.

“I was surprised,” said Hatton when recalling the moment the draw came in.  “I know these things shouldn’t matter, and on too many occasions they do, but it was on one of our promotions and I had the bulk of the support.  I think I definitely won that fight clearly and no one will ever tell me anything different.  I thought I won it comfortably.  Judges see fights differently so I haven’t dwelled on the defeat.  I was disappointed but moved on.

“Sometimes things work out that way in life and it is for the best, if I had have beaten Lovemore and got the IBO title then maybe I wouldn’t have been given a fight with Branco and won the European.  To win the European was fantastic.  I am very proud to be the champion and want to move on by beating Nuzhnenko.”

Indeed, Hatton’s frustrations with the N’dou decision were clear during the post-fight interview, N’dou had thrown insult after insult at his opponent during the build-up and those barbs had riled Matthew, who vented his frustrations before the Sky cameras.  This show of passion provoked criticism in some quarters yet Hatton had trained hard for the fight and had earned the right to express his disappointment with the result.

“I don’t really think about it, whatever you do you have critics and people who don’t like you.  I was very frustrated as I felt I had won it and so did Johnny Nelson and Sky.  I couldn’t see how it was a draw as I scored more punches than him and pushed the fight, he was very negative,” recalled Hatton. 

“I trained so hard for that fight, running early in the morning and training hard in the afternoon, so of course I was disappointed with the decision – it meant a lot to me.  Lovemore was also very disrespectful to me before the fight and those things build up over time.  There are a lot of trash talkers in boxing but he said a lot of personal things before that fight.

“I wanted that title so much.  I was desperate to win and felt I was robbed so you are going to show a little bit of emotion – I’m only human and most people would have done the same.”

Hatton hit the gym, hooking up with Shannon in February, and was soon on the road to recovery, the Branco fight came at just the right time.  Hatton was in no mood to leave things to chance this time around and made sure that he scored his points at crucial times in each and every round.

“It was a massive win,” said Hatton.  “I pushed him hard and even though I knew I’d won the fight you are never sure until you hear those words, ‘and new’.  It was a great night, a great night.

“I’m the European champion now and consider myself the best welterweight in Europe, Britain is included in Europe so I see myself as the best out there in Britain.  This guy Branco held the European title twelve months ago so I think I’ve passed some of the domestic fighters out there.  I’d like to fight for the domestic belt sometime but Nuzhnenko is the former WBA interim welterweight champion, if I can get past him then I’ll be ready for the big boys as this guy has only lost to Vyacheslav Senchenko for the full WBA title.”

Hatton has come a long way in his near-decade as a pro, the younger Hatton is now one of the flagship fighters of his brother’s promotional outfit, vying with Ryan Rhodes to become the first world title challenger, perhaps even champion, on the organisation’s books.  Not bad when reflect you upon Matthew’s relatively short amateur career and what the fighter feels were wasted year at The Phoenix gym in Denton.

“I only had 22 amateur fights”, stressed Hatton,” and spent a lot of wasted years at Billy [Graham]’s gym – no disrespect but a lot of Billy’s time was spent on Ricky – and I should have recognised this myself and made the move sooner.”

“In boxing and in life you have to move forward,” he continued.  “I’m European champion, am having a defence and don’t want to move backwards after it so I’ll be looking for more title fights.  Ricky said he’ll try to get Senchenko for me and get me that world title fight.  I’ve got a big incentive for this (next) fight.”

For ticket details go to www.brandhatton.com  

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