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Boxing

Hatton defeats Lazcano in front of jubilant home crowd

25/05/2008

Ricky Hatton has defeated Juan Lazcano by unanimous points decision to retain his IBO light-welterweight title at the City of Manchester Stadium.

The Hitman rarely took a backward step and overwhelmed his opponent so much that one judge even scored every round to the Manchester fighter. The judges scored the fight 120-110, 118-110, 120-108 in favour of Hatton.

Hatton entered the fight to his traditional anthem Blue Moon, but also wore a fat suit as an attempt to answer those who have criticised him for allowing his weight to drift between fights.

This did not seem to affect Hatton as he quickly got to work on Lazcano. The Mexican stood firm despite taking some powerful body shots.

Hatton used his right hook to good effect in the second round but Lazcano eventually got himself into the fight in the third round with some good shots of his own.

It was from this point that Hatton took control of the fight. After landing with two left hooks in the fourth round, Hatton began to wear down his opponent with more body shots in the fifth.

This appeared to take the wind out of the Mexican and he offered little attacking intent himself – content to stay behind his jab, using most of his energy trying to fend off Hatton.

The Hitman had Lazcano rocking with an excellent upper-cut in the sixth round and a relentless assault in the seventh earned him that round as well.

Late in the fight Lazcano caught Hatton with a strong body shot but the Mancunian wisely held on until he had recovered.

Hatton did enough over the final rounds to secure the fight. Though he went looking for the knockout blow, Lazcano held on bravely to see out the 12 rounds.

But when it came to the judges' scorecards there was only ever going to be one winner – much to the delight of the home crowd in Manchester.