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Good luck, Matthew. He seems like a smashing lad and I for one hope he does it. It has nothing to do with luck and if Hatton has trained like an animal and brings the right game plan anything's possible.

Honeyghan Curry anyone?

That being said, its a tough ask and unfortunately I don't seem him coming back with the belt.

Alvarez UD or stoppage.


Hope I'm proved wrong!

Matthew Hatton sounds like a half decent lad but anyone who is a boxing fan will know he is limited. He is domestic level at best.

Fair play for jumping through hoops and going away for a World Title fight but it will be one hell of a shock if he pulls it off. American hype can be overkill sometimes as we all know what happened to fighters like Jeff Lacy & Jermain Taylor once they had proper tests but this Alvarez looks very heavy handed and could easily cause Hatton Jr a lot of problems.

I have seen Matthew on the box and also on a few of the Ricky undercards and he has developed a bit because he doesn't try to rush fighters now as he looks like he thinks a bit more and boxes but not to be offensive he is domestic at best as he has thought non-punchers at European level.

Fair play for him for taking this fight but will be AMAZINGLY shocked if he doesn't get landslide outpointed or stopped.

politics deffo played its part in this matchup,but what you expect from the wbc,ie we be countin!!!,easy sanction fee for president suliaman,rhodes must be royally teed off!!!! good luck mat but even if the mexican wins he himself will be exposed by someone soon enough as he isnt anything special.

Sorry but Matthew Hatton is distinctly average

When I heard he had got a world title shot it really summed up what is wrong with boxing today for me. This guy is a nice guy but he is barely domestic class and should be nowhere near a world title shot.

Give the guy a break, lets hope he can hit Ricky's heights. One to watch for sure.

Alvarez HAS had 3 fights at Junior Middle, beating Baldomir and N'Dou. He's probably got a better chance there and at middle because he'll be too slow at welter to challenge at world level.

Typical WBC again though - apparently even though GDP have agreed to a 150lb catchweight the WBC are insisting it takes place at 154. Wasn't a problem for Pacquiao-Margarito was it!!

"One to watch for sure."

You obviously haven't watched him.

He's not that fast, gets hit too easy and has no power, perfect for Golden Boy's new golden boy.

Ben, I'm not sure you can class Ricky as one of Britain's finest boxers! Most likeable, yes. He was a brawler who led his his head and came up short against Mayweather and Pacman.

Agree with trueboxer - Ricky was avery likeable and great role model for working hard and getting the best from your ability, and for that he should be commended. But he did look out of his depth against any boxer of quality, particularly hand speed.

He was tough as they come, but he got picked off too easily, I can see this happening to his brother as well.
Although no-one can blame him for taking his chance. Whether it's politics or not, I cannot think of many boxers who would refuse the opportunity - but it's a very tough ask.

No doubt this fight will be spectacularly one side and over in 5 or 6 rounds, I predict.

But where can I watch this beating, it doesn’t seem to have been picked up by Sky, any good websites people can suggest?

I wish him well, it cannot have been easy seeing his brother achieve so much. Fingers crossed.

#9 he came up short against two legends of the ring, not this era any era.

As for Ricky being one of the greatest British fighters of all time, no, but certainly he is one of the best of the last 10 years.

The fact he came up short against Pac-Man and PBF, who hasn’t! Unfortunately the manner of his defeats showed his glaring limitations at true world class.

But you can’t take away from him, how he was dominant at 140 pounds for a period and the interest in boxing and fan base he created.

I cant agree with you that Ricky is one of the countries most liked sportsman. He once charged my girlfriend and I Β£20 per person just to have our photo to be taken with him. Thats after following him around the world supporting him. I hope his brother has some better manners.

I think calling Ricky a β€œ2 weight world champion”, although technically accurate, is abit optimistic. One winnable world title fight at Welter then immediately back down to 140 is hardly proving himself best in that division.

Although, for me he will go down as a British Great, it seems as he lost his two highest profile fights, he is given a Tim Henman’esq nearly man tag, which isn’t fair at all.

As for Matthew on Saturday… Good Luck. But I cant see any way he can possibly win, unless his older Brother sits on him Saul.

What is it about so many British based boxing fans that seems so negative? Ricky lost to two boxers who are the p4p best boxers going and have been for the last 5-10 years respectively. He had a quality career and made a lot of half decent boxers look distinctly average. He also dominated his natural weight. I loved Calzaghe, but I hate this strange attraction to an unbeaten record that seems to have spawned. Legends are not made by never being beaten. Ali through to Pacquaio, they all lost and they all made sure they beat whoever beat them. Afterall, how many Floyd fights will be talked about throughout the future? I would bet that Manny v Barrera, or Morales or etc... will long outlast the memories of Floyd not getting hit for 12 rounds. For me the prime example is someone like Khan, who for some reason was almost hated for having the gaul to fight someone with the power to knock him out, he got hit, and he seems to have learnt.
It is said that after a while you can never get better at Chess without playing someone better than yourself, to take yourself out the comfort zone and attempt to push yourself further is to learn.
So to put myself midly back on topic, good luck to Matthew, perhaps that experience of having been beaten will stand him in good stead. Maybe a bit of luck will be needed and if the right punch gets through against a young fighter eyeing their first title maybe he'll capitalise. My money though would be on a stoppage before the 8th and that bruise on Matthew's eye to look a lot bigger...

150lbs is 3 pounds over the welterweight limit though isn't it?! Therefore, Junior Middle!

Can you confirm if what I've read about the WBC insisting that no catchweight will be allowed is true though? Absolute disgrace if it is! They made that rubbish diamond belt for Manny when he was fighting at a catchweight against Cotto!

Huw88:

I have also heard the WBC are refusing to acknowledge the catch weight but it is an agreement between the fighters, hence the Hatton camp threatening to pull out if SA weighs over the agreed 150.

I think the annoyance about this fight being at a catch weight, is from genuine light middles who have been working hard to get a title shot, then an average welterweight has got a title fight out of knowhere with no experience in their weight division, so the proposed catch weight just rubs salt into the wounds of the bitter light middle weight contenders.

Personal I don't think the fighters should be able to make the rules / weight divisions up as they go along, when a world title is on the line, it makes a mockery of the belt.

In response to 3. tommyhearns and someone else saying he isn't anything special and will be worked out soon enough, the kid is 20 years old... I agree he's being pushed and pretty much given the belt, but to say he'll be worked out or really to say much at this point is premature. 36 pro fights no matter the level of opposition is hugely impressive and nobody knows how he'll be when he hits his peak.
I agree that Rhodes will be annoyed though, not fair they dismissed him in the rankings mainly due to the Hatton name. Regardless though best of luck to Hatton and I hope it's a good fight.

Matthew Hatton still fails to emerge from the shadow of his brother. This fight has undoubtedly been made on the back of Ricky's reputation in the US of a few years ago. The Americans will think they're getting another Ricky and an exciting fight, paying a premium for tickets as a result. What they'll get is a one-sided blow-out of a very average fighter well out of his depth. The most embarrassing facet of this 'fight' is how Ricky himself fails to see how he's been used by Golden Boy. They've shown a total lack of respect to the Hattons and their promotional team in coming in well over the 'catch-weight'. It was obvious they were going to disregard this 'agreement' from the off, knowing full well that the idea of future 'shoulder rubbing' in a promotional sense would be too much to resist in terms of calling off the fight. Ricky made noises of doing such before the fight, should Alvarez come in over weight, but Alvarez's camp knew full well they wouldn't; a belief borne out at the weigh-in when they couldn't even be bothered making 150lbs. Ricky's ending two careers here tonight; his brother's, when he's on the end of a one-sided, inside the distance defeat, and his own, in terms of trans-Atlantic promotion, when he realises that he was being used as a means to an end –good luck trying to sell a Crolla etc. fight in the US in the next 5 years - a sobering realisation of the 'special relationship' that exists between all US-UK transactions be they sporting or political - they say "Jump"…

Come on Matt, prove your doubters wrong!

Looks just like his big brother tbh! Good Luck mini Hatton!