By Richard McManus

The last time a British boxing superstar took this side of the pond by storm fans crowded around their televisions on a Friday night in 1997 for an HBO showcase between “The Prince” Naseem Hamed and veteran Featherweight Kevin Kelley.  The buzz around that fight was unlike any Featherweight fight in recent memory.  American audiences had been tantalized by Hamed’s antics and skills for several fights before we got to see him that night in Madison Square Garden. 

What ensued after the bell rang was incredible and dramatic.  With each man down three times, although Hamed’s punches were far more damaging, the fight didn’t even go four complete rounds.  Hamed dismantled Kelley in much the same way he dismantled Tom Johnson 10 months prior.  Kelley looked like he was in a 15 round war with Salvador Sanchez by the time referee Benjy Esteves called a halt to the affair at 2:27 of round number 4. 

All Kelley could offer as an explanation for his strategy or choice to go to war with the heavy handed Brit was “I deviated,” meaning he knew he was supposed to box the unorthodox Hamed, not slug with him.  Trying to trade bombs with a fighter like Hamed was a terrible choice, as Kevin discovered.

So what does this exciting trip down memory lane have to do with the bout scheduled for Saturday night between Ricky Hatton (40-0, 30KO) and Luis Collazo (26-1, 12KO)?  Well, parallels can be drawn and some of them actually make sense.  For one thing both Kelley and Collazo are from New York.  Kelley hailed from Queens, while Collazo calls Brooklyn home.  Both Collazo and Kelley are southpaws and not particularly known for their knockout punch.  As is known, Hatton hails from Manchester, England while Hamed was from up the road in Sheffield.

Coming into the fight with Hamed, Kelley had only been bested one time, a 10th round TKO at the hands of Alejandro Gonzalez back in 1995.   Collazo has also only tasted defeat once, a 3rd round TKO at the hands of Edwin Cassiani back in 2002.  The differences end there however as Kelley, at the time of the Hamed fight had already established himself as a great fighter with wins over the likes of Goyo Vargas, Derrick Gainer, Jesus Salud and Jesse Benavides just to name a few.

When Hamed selected Kelley for his American “coming out party” he was taking on a legitimate challenger.  Although he wasn’t a particularly dangerous opponent he was a slick boxer with some pop who, it was thought at the time, could potentially expose Hamed. 

As it turns out, he did expose Hamed in the first round with a smart punch right on the chin, dropping “The Prince” and laying the blueprint that many tried to follow as challengers in Hamed’s ensuing fights.  Marco Antonio Barrera followed the blueprint to a tee a few years later.  He busted Hamed on the chin several dozen times, handing “The Prince” his first loss and effectively ending his career.  To this day however, Hamed continues to string us along with talk of a comeback in “six months time” but we’ll believe it when we see it. 

As for Ricky Hatton, he sports and shiny undefeated record, just like Hamed and has some good wins under his belt, most notably the stoppage victory last summer over longtime 140-pound king Kostya Tszyu.  He has some other good wins and he has some wins over opponents that could best be described at this time as “name” opponents (Freddie Pendleton, Vince Phillips).   But if you put it all together, Hatton is on a big roll. 

Collazo to his credit is the WBA Welterweight champ and has a big TKO win over the primeval Miguel Angel Gonzalez.  The only other fighter to stop Gonzalez was Tszyu but we have to be realistic and admit that the Gonzalez of 1999 and the Gonzalez of 2005 are two different fighters. 

Collazo is the bigger man, having fought his entire career at or above the 147-pound limit.  Hatton has never fought above 140.  And Collazo is a southpaw and fighters like him have been known to pose a problem or two for guys like Ricky Hatton. 

HBO is banking big on Hatton.  After stealing him from Showtime they’re trying to maximize his marketability by staging this bout in Boston and placing it on the heels of the high profile Mayweather and De la Hoya Pay Per View cards.  Will Hatton one day be a great fighter, one worthy of Jim Lampley’s hyperbolic rhetoric? 

I’m not sure we’ll find out this Saturday against Collazo but you can bet dollars to doughnuts that if he gets past Collazo he’ll be in the ring with either De la Hoya or Mayweather within a year’s time.