Dave Oakes recaps this past Friday night's European welterweight title fight between champion Matthew Hatton and challenger Yuriy Nuzhnenko.

Matthew Hatton came back from a first round knockdown to successfully defend his European welterweight title on Friday night.

It was a disastrous start for the Manchester man as a left hook from Yuriy Nuzhnenko dropped him after barley two minutes of the bout. Hatton wasn’t badly hurt but the signs weren’t good for him, Nuzhnenko had already landed a couple of hurtful looking hooks to the ribs and was looking far stronger than the champion.

Hatton tightened his defence in the second round and tried to get his jab going, he wasn’t doing enough to make an impression on the tough looking Ukrainian but was fairing much better than he had in the first. Nuzhnenko was still pressurizing Hatton and targeting him with the left hook. It was a closer round but the challenger did enough to win it in my eyes.

The third round was much better for Hatton; he started to find the target with his jab and didn’t allow Nuzhnenko to bully him like he had done previously. Nuzhnenko landed another left hook to the body and a well timed right uppercut but it was Hatton who had been the busier and more accurate fighter.

It had been a slow start from the champion; he was looking stiff from the waist upwards and looked to be in danger every time Nuzhnenko got near to him. Hatton, sensing he needed to establish some sort of control, started to stand his ground a bit more from the fourth round onwards and elected to hold whenever the Ukrainian got close.

The fight swung in Hatton’s favour from the fifth onwards, he started to land some hard shots and put together eye-catching flurries of punches. He caught Nuzhnenko with five solid straight rights in the closing moments of the sixth round, Nuzhnenko walking onto them as he tried in vain to land another shot like the one that floored Hatton in the first.

The seventh was a big round for Hatton and was possibly the best round of his career. He landed several heavy blows, the straight right in particular working well, and was beginning to look the physically stronger fighter as he stood his ground and forced the Ukrainian backwards for the first time in the fight. It was also apparent that Hatton was now looking the physically stronger having struggled to match Nuzhnenko for strength early on in the fight.

Hatton continued to dominate Nuzhnenko in rounds eight and nine. He caught the challenger with a head rattling straight right towards the end of the ninth round and took very little punishment in return. Nuzhnenko was still trying to impose his will on Hatton but was struggling to land clean and looked to be running out of steam.

The tenth and eleventh rounds were closer than previous rounds; Nuzhnenko kept going forward whilst Hatton began to lose his shape and struggled to land as cleanly as he had done previously. Hatton finished the tenth strongly to take it on my card but I felt Nuzhnenko shaded the eleventh due to his work on the inside.

There wasn’t much between them in the twelfth either, both gave all they could but I felt Hatton’s work was the classier and gave him the round. There was no doubting Hatton had won and the judges were spot on with their scores (117-110 and 116-111 twice).

The win moves Hatton closer to a world title fight - let’s make no mistake about it, Matthew Hatton isn’t a world class fighter. What he is though, is a determined fighter who’s made the best out of the ability he’s got and has done remarkably well to win and defend a European title. He deserves far more credit than what he receives and should be praised for the perseverance he’s shown in his career.

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