By Troy Ondrizek
This upcoming weekend offers us a few fights of intrigue. In a battle of solid light heavyweights; Hugo Hernan Garay defends his WBA trinket against Juergen Braehmer. Celestino Caballero is attempting to be the first to whip “The Canadian Kid” Steve Moiltor, and in what could be the best fight of the entire weekend; James Kirkland and Brian Vera will probably forgo technique and try to alleviate one another from their collective consciousness. While these are all good fights between good fighters (ok, so I’m being generous), none of these fights/fighters are the marquee attractions.
Ricky Hatton versus Paulie Malignaggi is being billed as the fight between the two best light welterweights in the world. And almost everyone agrees, but this scribe feels Herman Ngoudjo beat Malignaggi. With any doubts aside, this is a fight between two premier fighters who couldn’t be any more different inside or out of the ring. The only thing these two have in common, other than success, is their candidness with the media and even themselves. Ricky “Fatton” enjoys the spoils of his career while he is still practicing pugilism, all the while when Malignaggi isn’t recovering from hand surgery he is in the gym staying in shape and trying to keep his game sharp.
One can always see Paulie around the New York fight scene, at shows or in gyms. He is visible, vocal, and a true fight fan. Ricky on the other hand, enjoys the fights from the pub and stays relatively low key until its time to do the press tours. The contrast in their fighting styles is of greater difference than their personal lives. This fact is news to nobody, and I don’t need to go into detail about how they are different. The difference in their styles (life and fighting) is why their respective careers vastly differ as well.
Hatton has battered, bruised, hugged, and pounded his way to the top of the light welterweight charts and into the hearts of his obnoxiously loyal fans. Malignaggi is almost the reincarnate of Hector “Macho” Camacho minus the ring entrances and dare I say it - power. Just as Camacho was respected, he was never beloved and he had more detractors than supporters. Malignaggi has faced more than his fair share of criticism ranging from his lack of power to his metro-sexual hair.
Hatton, with his rise to the top of the 140-pound division has enjoyed fiscal success along with his in the ring achievements, all doing so with few hitches in the journey. His style has afforded such luxury because when he isn’t hugging his opponents, he is hitting them with every punch his arms will allow. With the brawling style and the subsequent victories, Hatton easily garnered the respect of fans, critics, and fighters alike. It has been a dream career for Ricky, one in which many fighters would trade everything they had to achieve.
It’s the type of career that Paulie has been striving for since the start of his career. Sure Malignaggi has found success inside the ropes, and yes he has made a respectable living for himself with his fist. However, the giant paydays that fighters of his caliber make have eluded him, and the respect has as well. It’s not entirely Paulie’s fault. It just happens that he's been cursed with an oft injured hand that has cost him some fights and many months of fighting time. In the ring hasn’t helped “The Magic Man” that much either. His stick and move style isn’t all that bad to watch, but his lack of power, 5 KOs in 26 fights, doesn’t make him a crowd pleaser. Plus I hate to say it, but some people can’t stand his looks and his cocky demeanor. Most of the naysayers were quieted in his valiant albeit losing effort against Miguel Cotto, but they started to talk again after his hair debacle while fighting Lovemore N’Dou in their rematch.
For one man this fight could be a means to an end, a culmination of hard work. For the other man, this could be the end of his means and a culmination of a great career. Retirement talk for Ricky Hatton isn’t something millions of people want to hear, but what else does he have to prove?
Vegas has the line as Malignaggi +200, Hatton -250, and while many pundits are picking Paulie to box Hatton’s ear off, I just don’t see it. I’m not the biggest Hatton fan, but like I previously stated, I think Herman Ngoudjo outpointed and outfought Malignaggi. He buzzed Paulie a couple times and found a home for that straight right with disturbing ease. When Paulie stayed on the jab the contest wasn’t close, but once Herman got some affective pressure on Malignaggi - the tide was drastically turned.
Hatton said he is going to box, I don’t buy that. Hatton’s British antagonist, Junior Witter ,piped up recently on Setanta Sports News about the new stylistic change for Hatton, “For him to go and try to box an excellent boxer, it seems a disaster when he’s been fighting wars for 15 years.” Once a brawler always a brawler. Ricky will try to box at first but instincts will take over and the mauling will commence. And while Ngoudjo is a more disciplined fighter, Hatton is a much better pressure fighter and he will get hit coming in but it won’t stop the charge.
Malignaggi needs to use that great jab of his all night and never forget about it. His speed is so much more pronounced when his jab is pumping. He also keeps beautiful distance and timing when that jab is working. He truly is a great fighter to watch when everything is going right, but when he forgets to use that jab and starts to emit some of that bravado, he will put himself into a bad situation. This fight won’t be Paulie’s last hurrah, nor his last shot at the light welterweight crown - just his last shot at Hatton.
As for Ricky, this needs to be his swan song. With all the wars he’s been in, Hatton is an old 30. Let's not forget all of the long hours that he's invested during his stays in the local pubs. After Malignaggi, the 140-pound division is lacking big names. Timothy Bradley is a good fighter, as is Herman Ngoudjo, but neither of them are big enough names to really warrant Hatton to put himself through the torture of another training camp.
Hatton recently said “I’m not seriously thinking about retiring, but if I don’t beat him, I should seriously look at it.” After this fight the light welterweight division won’t riding tall, but it will go on a bit of an hiatus until Timothy Bradley builds up his repertoire and fanbase. Until then we will have to cherish this fight between the two best junior welterweights.