Brook beats Hatton but unable to stop him

By William Mackay: Matthew Hatton got a minor victory tonight by being able to survive 12 rounds against undefeated Kell Brook in losing by a 12 round decision at the Motorpoint Arena in front of a huge pro-Brook crowd of 9000 fans. Hatton was expected to be stopped by Brook by many boxing experts and it sure looked like he was on his way to being stopped in the last four rounds of the fight, but Hatton did his best to hang on in the literal sense to last the full 12.

The final judges’ scores were 119-107, 119-108 and 118-109.

Brook took the fight to Hatton early on, bloodying his nose and keeping him under a constant rain of fire. Brooks’ pace was near frantic as he seemed to be looking to get Hatton out of there as quickly as possible to prove a point. The fast pace may have cost Brook, though, by him coming up short in the past four rounds when he needed just a little more energy for him to get the stoppage he was looking for.

Hatton hit the deck in the 9th round from a left hand shot. It could have been a slip though by Hatton more than him actually being hurt by the punch. Hatton was hurt a number of times in the fight, but just not with the knockdown punch.

Brook showed good power, but not the kind of power he’ll need to beat the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Mike Jones, Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto at welterweight. All of those guys have better hand speed and more explosive power than Brook.