By Sammy Rozenberg
Las Vegas was under a foreign invasion as thousands of British boxing fans made the long trip to support Ricky Hatton (42-0, 30 KOs) as he defeated Juan Urango (17-1-1, 13 KOS) to regain the IBF junior welterweight title at the Paris Casino.
It was an inevitable meeting for Hatton and Urango. In 2006, Hatton abandoned his IBF 140-pound title to move up to the welterweight division to challenge WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo. Coincidently, the Collazo bout was also Hatton's debut on HBO. After twelve rounds of action, Hatton did not perform like the young, exciting fighter that was coming to America to challenge the elite welterweights of the worlds.
He was lucky to survive twelve rounds with the underrated Collazo to capture the WBA title by way of a unanimous twelve round decision. As Hatton was being hit with negative press from his meeting with Collazo, a young Juan Urango was walking through opponents in the junior welterweight division on route to winning the vacant IBF 140-pound title.
Several months after the fallout of his failed invasion of the welterweights, Hatton openly admitted that he was too small to continue fighting in the 147-pound division. He made a quick career decision to move back down to the junior welterweight division to challenge Urango for the IBF title he never lost in the ring.
During the fight, Urango appeared to be the physically stronger fighter, but was never able to get himself into the fight. He was slow on his feet and was never able to follow-up an occasional good right hand that would land flush. In the fifth round, Urango was able to find some success by landing some very sharp bodyshots that hurt Hatton.
After losing the fifth round, Hatton bounces right back in the sixth by landing uppercuts and crisp right hands to regain the momentum. Urango's corner tried to urge him to pick up the pace, but he was unable to comply.
After twelve rounds, Hatton won an easy unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 119-109.
The 28-year-old Hatton was quite ecstatic over fighting in Las Vegas. As a young professional, he used to dream of one day being able to fight before a Las Vegas crowd. Another dream is right around the corner, headlining an American pay-per-view against Jose Luis Castillo.
There is a tentative agreement for Hatton and Castillo to meet in the Spring. Most of the people involved with both camps expect the fight to happen. Castillo will certainly provide a very difficult fight for Hatton. Unlike Urango, Castillo throws a lot of punches, he hits hard to the body and knows how to adjust when he thinks the fight is not going his way.
The styles of both fighters will cause plenty of fireworks in the ring.
On the undercard,
Coming off a near one-year layoff, former champ Jose Luis Castillo (55-7-1, 47 KOs) squeaked by previously undefeated Herman Ngoudjo (15-1, 9 KOs) by winning a twelve-round split decision. Castillo was a bit rusty, Ngoudjo was a bit underestimated, and both of those factors made for an entertaining fight.
Ngoudjo came out with a stiff jab and hard to break defense that gave Castillo fits. By the third round, Castillo was bleeding profusely from his nose. It was a very close fight going into the final quarter, which made Castillo begin to pick up the pace and fight with a sense of urgency to win more of the rounds in the second half of the fight.
Final scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Castillo and 115-113 for Castillo.
Matthew Hatton (30-3, 11 KOs), younger brother of Ricky, stopped welterweight veteran Frank Houghtaling (19-13-5, 4 KOs) in seven rounds. After taking a lot of punishment in the fight, Houghtaling's corner stopped the contest after round seven. Houghtaling was knocked down in the fourth round.
