Matthew Hatton / Photo © Ray Kasprowicz

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Dave Oakes previews Friday night's European welterweight title clash between Matthew Hatton and Gianluca Branco.

Matthew Hatton hopes to make the most of a surprise shot at the European welterweight belt this Friday when he takes on Gianluca Branco at the Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham.

Hatton Promotions matchmaker Richard Poxon has worked his magic yet again, only a few weeks after securing an unmerited European title shot for Scott Lawton. Branco was originally scheduled to face Yuri Nuzhnenko but the fight fell through when Branco’s promoters failed to come up with a date, venue and the money for the fight to go ahead. Hatton’s promotional team made an attractive offer to both boxers and Nuznenko agreed to move aside so that Hatton could come in at two weeks notice to fight for the vacant title.

Hatton, 38-4-2 (15KO’s), fought on the undercard of Lawton’s title shot and was still in the gym when the call came, so he should be in good shape. He stopped the abysmal Mikheil Khutsishvili in the fifth round of a one-sided fight that was no more than a public sparring session last time out. He’d drawn with Lovemore N’dou in the fight before that and the disappointment of the judges decision still rankles with Hatton, although in reality, he should be more disappointed in himself for allowing a winnable fight to slip through his fingers due to his own lack of work early in the fight.

Branco, 43-2-1 (22KO’s), will be looking to retain the title he’s held on two previous occasions. The Italian has been around European and fringe world level for a long time, the only defeats on his slate coming in world title challenges to Miguel Cotto and Arturo Gatti. He was a good, solid fighter in his prime but has been on the decline for the past two years or so.

Branco turns forty in under six months and I think he’s starting to show his age. He was unimpressive in two of his last three fights, Juho Tolppola was causing him problems before a bad swelling halted proceedings and I thought Colin Lynes was very unlucky to lose on a split decision to Branco in Italy in May 2008.

Hatton doesn’t do anything exceptionally well; he’ll jab and throw the occasional straight right but is quite repetitive and won’t provide Branco with anything he hasn’t seen before. I would’ve fancied Branco to deal with Hatton easily a few years back but I feel his age makes the fight a more even contest. It’s not inconceivable that Hatton will outwork his older foe to edge a close decision but I think Branco’s the much better fighter technically and will eventually prevail, though he may have to dig deep in the later rounds to do so.

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