Boxing: Hatton proves fire inside still burns

Hatton wanted, a resounding victory on his return to the ring at the City of Manchester Stadium last night, which buried the bad memory of that bad night in Las Vegas five months ago.

However, he needed all 12 rounds to overcome a courageous Mexican-born challenger, Juan Lazcano, for a successful defence of his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) light-welterweight title on one of boxing's starriest nights.

"I wanted to show people I'm not past it," Hatton had said in response to those who suggested he might never be the same again after the sublime Floyd Mayweather had so painfully inflicted his first defeat. The Hitman, a has-been? There were 56,000 voices there to dispute it, an extra 1,000 crammed into Manchester City's ground on top of the anticipated 55,000 to compose the biggest fight crowd in Britain for over half a century. Hatton may have lost his last fight, but no one has greater capacity to win hearts or put bums on seats.

Defeat in front of his adoring public would have meant humiliation, a word not in Hatton's vocabulary. He never needed redemption, simply reassurance, and that he got with a performance that embraced all the fiery qualities his followers have come to love. Ideally, he should have stopped Lazcano, but the old campaigner from El Paso proved punch-resistant to the last, even though a fired-up Hatton gave him his best shots. Hatton had to count some bruises himself, and he twice stumbled from Lazcano's left hooks in the third and eighth rounds, but there could be no disputing the unanimous verdict. One of the judges gave him every round (120-108) and the others scored it 120-110 and 118-110. It was good to see that, though Hatton had suffered a chest infection in training, his stamina was more evident than in recent fights.

"He was a fantastic challenger," Hatton said. "He never took a backward step. I've never been more nervous for a fight, but the fans pulled me through. They were wonderful, absolutely awesome. They helped me through it and all those demons are gone now."

The 33-year-old Lazcano seemed the perfect pick for Hatton's convalescence after the mauling by Mayweather; inactive for 15 months, a lightweight until five fights ago, not a noted banger, and a walk-in fighter with a half-decent pedigree that was a bit crumpled around the edges. But he came for a punch-up. The question for Hatton was whether the scars from the Mayweather fight were more psychological than physical. Apparently not.

However, not much can be gleaned from this fight other than that, at 29, Hatton hasn't lost his appetite for boxing any more than he has for bacon butties. But Lazcano's trainer, Ronnie Shields, has not been alone in warning that the Hitman's larger-than-life style will catch up with him. Hatton had claimed that he was hurt more by the critics than by Mayweather; yet overwhelming as this victory was, and sharp as his body-punching proved, there were still worrying signs about his openness to counter-punches. He needs to be judged in a sterner test, one that the International Boxing Federation champion Paulie "Magic Man" Malignaggi, a brash 27-year-old New Yorker, had threatened to provide in his home ring at Madison Square Garden this year. Last night Malignaggi gained a reprise points victory over Australian Lovemore N'Dou, from whom he won the IBF belt, in the chief supporting bout. But it was a close-run thing, a split decision or, in this case, a hair's breadth. For the extrovert Malignaggi was by no means as sharp as the scissors his corner needed to employ to snip his overflowing dreadlocks at the end of the eighth round, the first time, surely, a fighter has had a haircut in the ring. The American's bad hair day had threatened from the first round, his coiffure, like his defence, all over the place. This and a damaged right hand contributed to an under-par performance and a split decision. Not much magic about Malignaggi last night.

After the homecoming for Hatton, the farewell tour, beginning perhaps with Malignaggi and culminating, he hopes, in a return with Mayweather, with Wembley and Croke Park, Dublin mooted as possible venues to accommodate a 100,000 crowd.

Egged on by his massed band of fans, Hatton seems to have convinced himself that he was railroaded by the ref against Mayweather and has the armoury to win next time. It is a dangerous delusion. Breath should not be held, though Mayweather might consider it an easy payday, and as we have come to learn in boxing, you never say never.

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