4 Corners 5.21.08: Hatton, Pavlik-Lockett, More

Posted by Alan Berg on 05.21.2008

Hatton tries to start new winning streak, Pavlik-Lockett (yawn), Versus contributing to the sport and the latest five-punch combo.

No bollocks here, it's the new 4 corners, English style

Hatton on the road to recovery

After a mega fight against the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Ricky Hatton will start to rebuild his image Saturday against Juan Lazcano. Hatton moved up to 147 and was knocked out by Floyd "Money" Mayweather, and now the Manchester native goes back to 140 where he still holds the Ring Magazine title.

Hatton is a better fighter at 140 and Vegas is paying 6-1 for Lazcano to pull the upset. Lazcano, who's coming off a 15-month layoff, insists that this fight is his destiny. Juan does have a few factors in his favor. Hatton is not only dealing with the first defeat of his career and will have to regain the magic of a raucous Manchester crowd which should be anywhere from 15-20,000 Brits. Oh and don't forget about the champ's chest infection.

Lazcano will have to establish a strong jab and movement to keep Hatton at bay. If Hatton gets to fight his bulldozer style in England you can forget about Lazcano dethroning the darling of Manchester. The first three rounds of this fight should tell the rest of the story.

The fight can be seen at 3:30 p.m.EST/12:30 p.m. PST on Versus. This is the first marquee champion ever to fight on the young network and hopefully this is a trend that will continue with a good showing from both men on Saturday.


Calling out Kelly Pavlik

Ok, Kelly you're a star. You've hit the Pay-Per-View market with Jermain Taylor and you have an experienced promoter who's going to feed you a freebie with Gary Lockett. So do all of us fight fans a favor, look impressive and knock him out. Then fight someone with a pulse, Arthur Abraham, Felix Sturm, or even better Winky Wright.


A recent positive



My city -- Las Vegas -- landed the Antonio Margarito-Miguel Cotto clash. Well it might not be a positive for the sport or make much of a difference where it will be fought as long as it's taking place. Let's put it this way, it's a positive for me as I will be getting some top-flight tickets for this one.

So maybe the readers want a little positive for them, well like I mentioned before, you need no HBO subscription to catch the Ring Magazine Junior Welterweight title bout this Saturday. It is a surprising venture for Versus, to have such a major fighter, but its an effort that should be welcomed by fans, so send in your thanks to the network brass.


The five-punch combo

5) In his latest column on thering-online.com, William Dettloff said to admit that if you're like him, than you are more interested in Azumah Nelson-Jeff Fenech III than James Toney-Hasim Rahman II. And yes William I'm like you.

4) Ok last week I complained about Sam Peter fighting Andrew Golota, I'm a little bit more open to the so-called title defense in England against either Audley Harrison or Matt Skelton. Not because the two of them are better fighters than Golota, but that they haven't had nearly as many title shots as the Foul Pole.

3) I can't wait to see the documentary, "Tyson." The film received a strong reception at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

2) All three HBO Boxing After Dark cards were a fun bag of boxing, but did we really see a legit future-hall-of-famer?

1)Whoo, did Chris Byrd get a rude awakening at light heavyweight and in case you missed the knockout, here's the video....