HATTON- COLLAZO PREVIEW

May 9, 2006 - by Ron Borges

If another British invasion is about to begin, it's fitting that it should start in Boston.

The last time the Brits had a large army of warriors holed up there things didn't work out as well as they'd planned. It's been 220 years since and this time they're trying something different. This time they've come with an invading force of one, junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton. If he is what he says he is, that may be enough.

Since defeating Kostya Tszyu 11 months ago to become the all but undisputed (there's always somebody ready to dispute things in boxing) 140-pound champion, Hatton has become the hottest attraction in British boxing circles and probably in all of Europe. But he had never ventured across the waters for a meaningful fight until he agreed to move up to 147 pounds and challenge World Boxing Association welterweight champion Luis Collazo May 13 in an HBO debut that is supposed to lead him to some of the biggest fights of the year if he can do to Collazo what he did to Tszyu and then WBA 140-pound champion Carlos Maussa in his last two outings.

What he did, really, is what he's done throughout much of a career in which he's gone 40-0 with 30 knockouts. He won in the kind of style that sells tickets and attracts fans. He won in knockout style. In England Hatton is a ticket seller and a national idol but in the United States he is a footnote, someone who as yet remains a mystery, an unknown commodity coming to try and make a name for himself.

"I want people all over the world to know my name,'' Hatton said when asked to explain why he would leave the safety and lucrative confines of his country to come to the U.S. "I wanted to appear on HBO and challenge for bigger titles. My mandatory was against someone TV never heard of and most of the top guys (at 140) are moving up in weight so it was a logical move to make for me, too.

"Fighting in the States, on HBO, is something I dreamed of all me life. I'm still flying the flag over it, really. The people back home understand what I'm doing. They know I want to take on America to make a name for myself. I think they respect me more for it.''

The first of those challenges is the unheralded Collazo, who won the WBA title from Jose Rivera on two weeks notice but he lacks the kind of punching power that has led Hatton to be known as "The Hitman.'' For Collazo, the road to victory is a slower and less explosive one because he wins with guile and a good jab. A slick moving southpaw who is 26-1 (12 KO), Collazo believes in that cocky New York way that the British invasion will again come to an unexpected end where trouble first began for the British so long ago.

"I know they picked me because they think they can beat me but they picked the wrong guy,'' the Brooklyn-bred Collazo said. "I'm a slick southpaw. I won the title on two weeks notice but this time I've had months to prepare. I'm ready for him. I got the exact wrong style for Hatton and styles make fights.

"I know he don't know me. The public don't know me. He's already talking about what he's going to do in his next fight. He's looking past me and that's a mistake. Don't let my looks fool you. I'm going there to fight.''

It would be difficult for Hatton not to look past Collazo, who labored in anonymity on the edges of the sport despite his sterling record until then welterweight champion Jose Rivera's opponent fell out at the last moment a year ago. Collazo was close and seemed a safe enough replacement to Rivera's managers and so he was called in. By the time he left Rivera's hometown of Worcester, Ma,. he'd outclassed him all night, beating him to the punch again and again and then often disappearing before Rivera had a chance to retalitate.

Hatton would be wise to expect the same kind of fight from Collazo. To keep the plans HBO has for him alive, he will have to cut the ring off all night, walking Collazo down and then working his body and pushing him to fight a faster pace than he might like under more pressure than he's used to, as he did with Tszyu, slowly taking away his legs and forcing him to make mistakes.

Yet Hatton told Collazo at a recent press conference called to hype the first HBO fight in Boston in 25 years that he would not make the mistake many others might be making.

"Luis, they may not respect you but I respect you,'' Hatton said of the boxing public. "I won't underestimate you. I know why I'm coming to America. I'm coming to fight.''

To fight far bigger matches than this one. The intention of both HBO and Hatton's handlers is if he can win the WBA title and Arturo Gatti wins another portion of the 147-pound championship in July, they would be matched on HBO in the late fall in a fight both sides believe would be a big-money fight. If Hatton can win that fight he'd then have made enough of a name for himself in the States that he'd be ready both as a fighter and as a personality to get in with the likes of the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., or face the challenge of the young Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto at either 140 or 147.

"Ricky Hatton is a huge star in the UK,'' HBO sports vice-president of programming Kery Davis says. "He's someone we've had our eye on for a long time. If there was anybody in the sport we wanted to get our hands on it was Ricky Hatton.''

Hatton understands there is a long-term plan to what he is doing. He knows he came to the U.S. not to appear one time on HBO and then return to the soldout arenas he's been fighting in in Manchester and Sheffield, England. Focused as he may be on pressuring Collazo until he can take him out, he admits he watched with interest Mayweather's recent one-sided domination of then IBF welterweight champion Zab Judah with an eye toward what it might one day mean to him.

What he saw that night was a talented fighter, one of the best in the world. But someone who's better than Ricky Hatton. Different but not better.

"He won very, very convincingly but it wasn't so execeptional I went, 'God, I'll have to stay away from Floyd Mayweather,''' Hatton said. "Floyd is No. 1 pound-for-pound in boxing. He deserves to be there. But I didn't shutter in fear from it. He's probably the best talent to come along for God knows how long. He's got the best ability but I won't let him use it.

"We both know that's what we're building for, maybe this time next year. You can see where I'm headed. Floyd is my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but a lot of people here haven't seen me fight so I got to do more than win against Collazo to get to Floyd. I' ve got to be impressive, like I was against Kostya ''

Hatton was more than impressive that night against the future Hall of Famer. He was dominating, lambasting Tszyu early,. holding off the champion's charge in the middle rounds and then making him quit on his stool late in the fight with a brutal assault that had the crowd of 22,000 at the MEN Arena in Manchester roaring at 3 a.m.

Hatton was forced to fight in the wee hours to accomodate U.S. television, which was already trying to build him up in the States. Now he's finally arrived, moving up in weight to challenge for his second world title in his first appearance in an American boxing ring in six years. When he was last here he fought as a complete unknown in Michigan. Everything is different now. He's back in the States not for a payday or a win but to launch an invasion he hopes will allow HBO to make him the same kind of international star his fellow countryman (of a sort) Lennox Lewis became.

Hatton is not a heavyweight of course so the road is different and a bit steeper but he is prepared to take the first steps up that road in Boston, where his ancestors found the hills and valleys not to their liking once a fight broke out. That's not a feeling "The Hitman'' figures to share with his forebears.

"I won't make the same mistake here we made 200 years ago,'' Hatton said. "I won't understimate him one bit. Collazo is a very capable guy. I've watched a lot of his fights. He's got very fast hands and he showed a lot of heart when he won the title. It's a very tricky fight for me but I don't think he's got enough to beat me.''

For Hatton, fighting on HBO in the States is something he dreamed about back when he was a young amateur watching the likes of Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn and later Prince Naseem Hamed fighting on television from the United States. Thinking back he admits, "Those were the guys I aspired to be. I have to pinch myself a little bit to realize I'm there now.

"I've fought for three world titles in my last three fights (IBF junior welterweight, WBA junior welterweight and now WBA welterweight). I can't remember the last time a British fighter did that in successive fights. It put my name in British boxing history. Now, if I beat these guys over here, it will take me to another level. But that doesn't start with Gatti or Mayweather. It starts with Luis Collazo.''

That's a fact Ricky Hatton needs to remember as the days wind down toward May 13. He needs to read his history and recall what happened to the Brits who came to Boston without enough respect for their little known opponents. If he can do that, his invasion may not be repelled so easily as their's was.