By Alexey Sukachev

At Tower Circus in Blackpool, England, former world title challenger Matthew Hatton (now 42-5-2, 16 KOs) erased a few bad memories of his previous fight, a one-sided loss to Canelo Alvarez in March for the vacant WBC light middleweight title, with a convincing, one-sided drubbing of overmatched but brave and durable Belarussian Andrey Abramenko (15-1-2, 3 KOs).

Hatton dominated the entire contest and was rightfully awarded with a wide unanimous decision: 118-110 (Howard Foster) and 118-109 (Dave Parris and Phil Edwards). BoxingScene agreed with the scoring.

Abramenko, 24, a vastly inexperienced but courageous fighter with a padded record, was never in the fight. He tried to outbox the bigger, stronger Hatton, who had come down in weight for this fight, but found little success. He was moving good in the first couple of rounds but, as soon as the WBC #11 welterweight found his rhythm, the Belarus native was in the world of pain. Hatton, energized and shimmering with confidence, walked through Abramenko's weak counters to tag his body with wicked, strong right and left hooks. He landed well-placed overhand lefts throughout the fight as well.

The Brit, 30, was cut over his left eye in the seventh round, while Abramenko lost his own portion of blood in later rounds. The younger brother of Ricky Hatton was also deducted a point in the tenth for hitting below the beltline. With the win, Matthew acquired the vacant IBF International welterweight title.

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Rising local cruiserweight talent Matty Askin (11-0, 7 KOs) made another step up in his career with a nice knockout of rugged Argentinean challenger Juan Manuel Garay (18-11, 10 KOs). Young gun Askin, 22, was too much for his 39-year old opponent but it didn't becomet evident until the third round.

In the first, Garay bobbed and weaved enough not to be clocked by anything serious. Round two was definitely Askin's but referee Howard Foster Jr. was too tough on his compatriot, when he deducted a point from the local boy for somewhat dubious holding. However, Askin never stopped trying and it has paid off pretty quickly. Askin was dominant in the third, and the Brit finally got Garay in the fourth round with a series of right upperucts and a picture-perfect left hook to put the Argentinean down. Garay got up, but the referee stopped the contest at 1:58, and it seemed too early...

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