HATTON STOPS CASTILLO WITH A BODY SHOT
By Ron Brashear Photos: Eric Van Dyke/InsideBoxing.com

Las Vegas (IB-6/23/2007) – In front of a charged up, pro-Hatton crowd that made the journey from England to Vegas to support their hero at the Thomas & Mack center, they were treated to a very dominant performance by Hatton!

Ricky “The Hit Man” Hatton improved his unblemished record to (43-0, 31 KOs) by stopping Jose Luis Castillo (55-8-1, 47 KOs) at 2:16 of round number four to retain his IBO Light Welterweight crown. It was obvious from the sound of the opening bell that Hatton came into this fight with something to prove. He immediately took the fight directly to Castillo and remained inside and close throughout every round and was the stronger and faster puncher of the two.

I had Hatton winning all three of the 1st three rounds and so did two of the three judges who were officially scoring the bout. Early in the fourth round, referee Joe Cortez deducted a point from Castillo for a low blow, after he has previously warned Castillo twice earlier in the fight. It wasn’t long after that deduction that Hatton landed a solid left hook to the body that caused Castillo to drop and take a knee in an attempt to recover from the blow. While I was anticipating Castillo to get up prior to the ten-count and continue fighting, he opted to remain on the canvas and was counted out. So Hatton scored a KO victory of the rugged Castillo.

At this point in time, it was hard to determine was this more about how dominant Hatton was? Or was this more about how shot and worn Castillo was in this fight as a result of his previous wars with the late Diego Corrales back in 2005? I do not want to take anything away from Hatton’s performance. I believe that Hatton’s immediate pressure took the starch out of Castillo from both; a mental perspective, as well as a physical perspective, and Castillo did not have any answers to solve the pressure that Hatton was applying on him.

After the fight, Castillo admitted; "He got me with a perfect shot, I couldn't get up."

As for Hatton, when questioned about whether he would like to take on Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather, he made the comment of "There was more action in the four rounds of this fight than Floyd showed in his entire career!" While I definitely liked what I saw in Hatton tonight, I still believe styles make fights and his style of aggression coming straight forward will not have the same success against an elusive counter puncher and defensive genius like Mayweather.

That match up would be more like a mirror image of Mayweather vs. Baldomir. We all saw what happened in that fight. A total mismatch that left the brawler frustrated and embarrassed and outclassed by a pure scientific boxer.

Never the less, Kudos for Hatton on getting the job done tonight and it was great to see a fighter have such a loyal fan following that was displayed by the fans of England!


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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com