UNANIMOUS DECISION FOR RICKY HATTON

Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo both cinch victories tonight at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

Photos by Will Hart

Two fighters reached respective crossroads tonight, each fighting opponents with difficult, physical styles, and each arriving at separate victories with a similar fate: each other.

In a somewhat surprisingly challenging fight for Jose Luis Castillo, undefeated Herman Ngoudjo fought a tough and stamina-driven fight to the finish, pushing the to a narrow split decision, but was unable to secure a victory against Castillo. While it was Castillo's experience in the ring that allowed him to gain ground in later rounds as the African tired, the match was neck and neck throughout the majority of early rounds.

And in the main event, a thin and aggressive Ricky Hatton, returning from a one-fight stint at welterweight were he faced difficulty defeating Luis Collazo, regained his Jr. Welterweight title against also undefeated Juan Urango. Though a tough and powerful fighter, Urango never mustered the energy or determination to push hard enough against Hatton to dominate more than a couple of rounds. Hatton, on the other hand, showed that he has the ability to move away from powerful punchers and outbox opponents, despite being known for a fighter who charges forward, focusing only on power punching.

Hatton's performance led to an unanimous victory with matching scores of 119-109 on the three cards. Urango was only able to turn the fight at one point throughout the twelve rounds, when he was able to work Hatton's body with repeated powershots, leaving Hatton without a reliable strategy throughout much of the round. Unfortunately for Urango, he was unable to continue the assault and Hatton adjusted going into the sixth round and on to an eventual victory.

Now that both Hatton and Castillo have cleared the roadblocks, it seems likely that these two will be meeting in the ring in the near future.