via d.yimg.com

Trainer Buddy McGirt stopped the fight in the 11th round, and Ricky Hatton retained his junior welterweight championship with a rather dominant performance against top-ranked contender Paulie Malignaggi on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Malignaggi had trouble from start to finish against Hatton, essentially, winning the first round but that's about it. Hatton hurt Malignaggi in the second round and had him hanging on for dear life, and shook him up a few more times during the fight.

It was the slickster Malignaggi who held and held, and after the fight, Malignaggi complained openly with Larry Merchant of HBO about the stoppage. "I'm better than getting stopped," he said, while classy about both Hatton and the British fans in attendance.

Frankly, from my perspective, the stoppage did seem a bit selfish on Buddy McGirt's behalf, as Malignaggi failed to implement his advice over and over during the fight. McGirt, honestly, has had plenty of failures over the last couple of years. It's totally speculative and I may be reading more into it than necessary, but McGirt's body language with the stoppage seemed more annoyed and frustrated than concerned. Maybe it's only me, but I didn't particularly like the stoppage at all. Paulie was losing, yes, but he was battling to finish the fight. Not getting stopped is a big deal to him. He wasn't getting killed in there or anything.

Brian Vera, though, was getting killed in there by James Kirkland when referee Vic Drakulich stepped in to stop the action in the eighth round. Vera had gone twice (once in the seventh, twice in the second) and was getting tagged routinely by Kirkland. He did show that Kirkland's power was not amazing, I guess, but he didn't disprove that it's very, very real. Vera's a tough, tough kid, but he took a beating.

We'll have much more tomorrow on both fights, so come back then. Thanks for joining us tonight!

Our live, round-by-round coverage and scoring will start with the show on HBO at 10pm ET. Join us! If you're new to the site, our coverage takes place in the comments section, which updates live and requires no browser refreshing whatsoever.

Tonight at the MGM Grand in Vegas, Ricky Hatton returns to the States on official business for the first time since his December 2007 defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

He'll face another slick American boxer when he squares up with Brooklyn's Paulie Malignaggi. Malignaggi is no Mayweather, and I'm sure even the brash Paulie would admit as much.

But this might not be the Ricky Hatton of old, either. UK boxing analyst Steve Bunce isn't the only one concerned about Ricky's mindset these days.

A breakdown of events for Hatton since that TKO manhandling against the "Pretty Boy":

1. At first, he showed humility. Later, it was mostly complaining about Joe Cortez, who has his faults to be sure, but Cortez was fine in that fight. Hatton's style was shut down by Cortez in many ways; Hatton's style is also frequently illegal in many ways. Mayweather was the guy hitting him, and Mayweather was the guy Hatton couldn't hit. Ricky's change in attitude didn't seem like "him," if you know what I mean.

2. Hatton beat Juan Lazcano in May, in a fight I felt was closer than the official cards. Juan Lazcano is no chump, but he's always failed against the highest-level fighters he's faced (save for Stevie Johnston, which began Stevie's downfall). Hatton often appeared gun-shy, took some power shots from Lazcano and got in minor trouble a couple times, and just wasn't as active or effective as he has been in the past. And this was with some biased refereeing.

3. He fired trainer Billy Graham. Some said it was about time that the world-class fighter got a genuinely world-class trainer. Others wondered where Ricky's head could be at if he was letting Billy go. Was he doubting Graham, himself, or both?

4. He hired Floyd Mayweather, Sr., to train him for Malignaggi. Mayweather specializes in slick, defensive-minded boxers.

We're hours from finding out how it all turns out against Paulie. Some lame, standardized keys to victory sort of crap? Sure!

What Ricky Hatton must do:

• Don't get too far out of his comfort zone. Trying to box Malignaggi almost guarantees embarrassment.
• Make Paulie throw his right hand. The thing is mostly for show anyway, but with the way Ricky crowds and bullies, chances for Malignaggi to re-break it on Hatton's elbow or something seem especially high.
• Be Ricky Hatton. That means get inside, push him around, and even get dirty. Malignaggi is an extremely emotional fighter that can't hide his feelings. When he's frustrated, everyone in the country knows.
• Lure him into a slugfest. He won't win it, and then you're taking away his best chance at victory.

God, do I love those crazy SOBs. They won't be out in as full a force for Malignaggi as they were for Mayweather, but no doubt Ricky Hatton will have his fans, singing, at the MGM Grand tomorrow night.

Ticket sales are said to be iffy -- Dan Rafael mentioned he expected 10,000, maybe a bit less.

We'll have a further preview of Hatton-Malignaggi later tonight or early tomorrow (same difference, really), and then live, round-by-round coverage and scoring with the HBO show starting at 10pm ET, and presented in glorious HD. Get with it, Showtime!

Back in March, Showtime picked up a title unification bout that American diehard boxing fans really, really wanted to see.

That night in London, David Haye smoked Enzo Maccarinelli in two rounds to unify the WBA, WBC and WBO titles. While it was hard to argue with a great couple rounds of action, it was also hard to not be a bit let down.

Fast forward eight months, with Showtime nabbing a 122-pound unification fight between IBF titlist Steve Molitor and WBA beltholder Celestino Caballero.

Again, it's hard to not be a bit let down, even though we got to see something that usually would be reserved for scouring internet streams and hoping the video isn't too choppy.

Tonight in Rama, Ontario, on Steve Molitor's turf, it was Celestino Caballero who fought like he was in his own backyard, troubling Molitor from the get-go and knocking him out in the fourth round. It was clear in round one that Molitor either had no gameplan, had a bad gameplan, or just didn't know what to do with Caballero's freakish reach and height advantages.

In the third -- which was Molitor's best round (he won none of them) -- Caballero appeared to sting Molitor just before the bell with an uppercut. Early in the fourth, he found that same punch again, and it put Molitor on the mat. After continuing, Molitor was hit four times, on his way down again, and his corner threw in the towel. It appeared that referee Luis Pabon was going to stop it no matter what.

What can you really say? There's not much to analyze. Without being mean, let's face facts: Steve Molitor got his ass kicked tonight. When he wasn't running around the ring, looking to escape Caballero's awkward charges and frustrating style, he was coming up short. Coming up short when he chose to throw at all, that is. He appeared trigger-shy, and admitted after the fight that he was as tight as everyone could see he was. He was never in the fight.

For Caballero, it's another good win for a fighter who is now deserving of a pound-for-pound top 20 consideration. There are more than 20 guys deserving of being in the talks, of course, and now Caballero is absolutely on the list of nominees. This win came against an unbeaten fighter who had largely dominated everyone in front of him, including some good pugs along the way.

I've said it before and will say it again. Caballero is no favorite of mine. I don't particularly enjoy watching him fight, I don't think he has any appreciable skill, and when the situation calls for it he's as dirty as they come. But the man is going to be trouble for anybody at the weight. It's so hard to get inside on him. He lost a couple fights, years ago. Those don't matter now. He is making a habit of beating on guys that'll fight him these days. It might be bowling shoe ugly, but he gets the job done.

Certainly a bit disappointing, but you can't fault Celestino Caballero for going out and doing his job in under four rounds, getting Steve Molitor out of there before the Ontario faithful could even really get settled in for their main event. For Molitor, it's back to the drawing board. For Caballero, he's now got two trinkets as a negotiation tactic. He'll use them.

Our live, round-by-round coverage begins tonight at 11pm ET. The fight will take place on Showtime, once again the go-to guys for these sort of fights that American diehards want to see. Another kudos to the boxing team over at the "other" premium boxing outlet for the States.

via www.eastsideboxing.com

Yesterday, Michael Woods of The Sweet Science reported that Andre Berto was sure that a January 24 fight with Shane Mosley was "agreed to in principle," with just details to be ironed out.

Today, BLH commenter Option27 let us know that Mosley was on the radio saying the fight was a done deal. (How's that for my INSIDE SCOOP?)

There's been no concrete report from ESPN or anywhere else that I can tell, and frankly this morning all I'd read was that the fight "was in trouble," but that HBO was pressing hard for it. Don King was trying to get Luis Collazo, Berto's mandatory, into a fight with Berto that had been discussed, or get Berto stripped, which the Berto camp wasn't big on despite the fact that they won that trinket after Mayweather gave it up and it was put up for grabs between Berto and the woefully unqualified Miki Rodriguez.

Right now, all signs point to a Berto-Mosley scrap on January 24. If it's as close to done as it sounds, I'd expect something official within the week, maybe even by the end of the weekend. Hopefully, it's not more talk leading to nothing. There is absolutely not a better fight for either guy right now.