Football
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 18y

Scorecard: Hatton wins, but Collazo's for real

A roundup of the weekend's notable boxing results from around the world:


Saturday at Boston
Welterweight
Ricky Hatton W12 Luis Collazo

Wins a welterweight title.
Scores: 115-112 (twice), 114-113

Records: Hatton, 41-0; Collazo 26-2
Rafael's remark: Hatton's American invasion almost turned into a disaster on the shores of the Charles River, but the consensus 2005 fighter of the year from England did just enough to pull out the decision victory in a very, very close (and exciting) fight.

His HBO debut started brilliantly as he dropped Collazo immediately in the first round, but any notion that this would be a quick night quickly evaporated when the tough-as-nails Collazo rallied and started winning rounds before his performance culminated with the 12th round, in which he badly rocked Hatton. The knockdown of Collazo, coupled with Collazo's inability to knock Hatton down in the 12th despite hitting him hard, turned out to be Hatton's margin of victory.

The win gave Hatton his third world title in a second weight class. The first two came in 2005, when he stopped future Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu to win the recognized junior welterweight championship before he unified belts against Carlos Maussa.

Although Hatton was successful in his move up, it was pretty obvious midway through the fight that Hatton might be best served by going back to 140 pounds, where he is more powerful. However, the money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Arturo Gatti would be at welterweight, and those are the fights that boxing fans are looking forward to.

As for Collazo, the loss did more for him than any of his previous wins. He is now on the boxing map and would be welcomed back by HBO for the right fight. Although he and his team complained bitterly about being robbed and demanded a rematch, they should take a deep breath and relax. Collazo wasn't robbed. He lost a close fight. Period. He should look no further than his bout last year against Jose Antonio Rivera, in which Collazo won the belt in the first place. How did he do it? On a split decision in an even closer fight than Saturday's in Rivera's hometown, and he never gave Rivera a rematch.

Featherweight
Eric Aiken W-DQ8 (low blows) Valdemir Pereira

Wins a featherweight title.

Records: Aiken, 16-4; Pereira 24-1
Rafael's remark: What a cheap way to win a title. Pereira got a raw deal from inept referee Charlie Dwyer, who was quick to penalize him twice for borderline low blows in the sixth and seventh rounds and then finally disqualify him for a legitimate low blow in the eighth round.

Aiken helped his cause by complaining -- acting, it looked like to some -- about shots that were nothing more than good body blows. That said, Aiken pulled off his second big upset in a row after knocking out former bantamweight champ Tim Austin on April 1.

Aiken, who took the title bout on less than two weeks' notice when Esham Pickering fell out with an injury, scored two knockdowns of Pereira in this excellent action fight. The fifth round, in which Pereira went down from a left hook to the body, is a candidate for round of the year. After the knockdown, Pereira stormed back in a give-and-take round. Between the action of the fight and the controversial ending, this one has rematch written all over it. Pereira deserves one, too.


Saturday at Zwickau, Germany
Super middleweight
Markus Beyer Tech. Draw 4 (accidental head butt) Sakio Bika
Retains a super middleweight title.
Records: Beyer, 34-2-1; Bika, 20-1-2.
Rafael's remark: Bika, a Cameroon native based in Australia, gains a moral victory perhaps in this technical draw, which occurred when he and Beyer accidentally clashed heads in the fourth round. The head butt opened a cut under Beyer's right eye, which swelled shut, and Beyer was unable to continue. At the time of the stoppage, Beyer was ahead 40-36 on one scorecard and it was 38-38 on the other two cards. Figure on a rematch.
Middleweight
Arthur Abraham W12 Kofi Jantuah
Retains a middleweight title.
Scores: 117-109, 116-111, 115-112
Records: Abraham, 21-0; Jantuah, 30-3
Rafael's remark: Jantuah, a longtime junior middleweight contender now fighting at middleweight, gave Abraham a good test in this action-packed fight, but the German-based Armenian did enough to win the decision and retain his belt in his second defense.

Jantuah, who is from Ghana but is based in Las Vegas, was hurt several times and came close to going down in the 11th, but he did what he always does -- continued to go forward throwing punches. Although Abraham had a point deducted in the seventh round for a rabbit punch, it didn't matter in the final tally. Two of Jantuah's three defeats have been decision losses in title bouts, to Abraham and then-junior middleweight titlist Kassim Ouma.


Saturday at Sheffield, England
Light heavyweight
Clinton Woods TKO6 Jason DeLisle
Retains a light heavyweight title.
Records: Woods, 39-3-1, 24 KOs; DeLisle, 18-5-2
Rafael's remark: That the repugnant IBF allowed this rematch is just par for the course. Woods, who owes former champ Glen Johnson a mandatory shot, instead got an exception by paying a $20,000 fee to the IBF to allow him to fight DeLisle, a fighter he already knocked out in the 12th round in 2004 and who lost his previous fight -- in an IBF eliminator!

So it should come as no surprise that Woods won again, and this time even easier. In his second defense, Woods reportedly dominated the fight, rocking DeLisle in the second round and hurting him with a right uppercut in the sixth. That shot forced DeLisle to the ropes, and Woods moved in for the kill as he unloaded unanswered shots until the referee called it off.


Friday at Córdoba, Argentina
Junior lightweight
Vicente Mosquera W12 Jose Pablo Estrella
Retains a junior lightweight title.
Scores: 117-111, 116-112 Mosquera, 116-112 Estrella
Records: Mosquera, 24-1-1; Estrella 38-10-1
Rafael's remark: Mosquera won his title with a rousing decision against Yodsanan Nanthachai in April 2005 but was finally making his first defense after a pair of victories in non-title bouts.

Mosquera, who pulled out a split decision against Estrella on the annual WBA "KO Drugs" charity card, must now face mandatory challenger Edwin Valero within three months.


Friday at Chicago
Junior featherweight
Antonio Escalante W12 Juan Ruiz
Scores: 120-108, 119-109 (twice)
Records: Escalante, 12-1; Ruiz, 21-3
Rafael's remark: Escalante, returning from his decision victory in a sensational brawl with Jose Hernandez in January, had a much easier time with Ruiz in scoring a near shutout.

Escalante was aggressive, stronger and faster than Ruiz and was never in trouble. Despite the lopsided scores, this Telefutura main event was an entertaining scrap. We're not sure how far Escalante can go, but it's going to be fun watching him.


Friday at Tampa
Lightweight
Edner Cherry TKO11 Monty Meza-Clay

Records: Cherry, 20-4-2, 9 KOs; Meza-Clay, 20-1
Rafael's remark: Cherry ended Meza-Clay's unbeaten run with an impressive TKO in a good "Friday Night Fights" main event on ESPN2.

Cherry seemed to injure his right hand late in the fight, but it didn't stop him. Out of nowhere, Cherry unloaded a tremendous flurry of more than a dozen punches as Meza-Clay wobbled all over the ring. With Meza-Clay unable to defend himself or throw back, referee Brian Garry called it off.

Cherry is one of the most entertaining fighters around, and this was a nice win for him as he rebounded from his Showtime-televised, all-action decision loss to Jose Armando Santa Cruz in February.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

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