Manchester fighter favourite to retain European title
Matthew Hatton insists he is "100 per cent confident" of retaining his European welterweight title when taking on Yuriy Nuzhnenko at the Bolton Arena tonight.
The younger brother of former world champion Ricky Hatton claimed this belt when outpointing Italian veteran Gianluca Branco in Dagenham in March and now seeks to make a successful first defence.
Nuzhnenko has lost just one of his 30 pro bouts and held the interim WBA title before going down to unbeaten fellow Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko and promises to give the home fighter a tough workout.
However, 29-year-old Hatton appeared physically stronger when weighing in 12 ounces heavier than his opponent and grinned: "I'll be a hell of a lot bigger come fight time as well."
He added on brandhatton.com: "I'm in great shape. All the hard work has been done and it's just a case of getting my head on the job. I'm very focused for this fight and really looking forward to it.
"I've seen a few of his fights, but it's always nice to see your opponent in the flesh and he's exactly as I expected. I've watched tapes of his fights and I'm up against a real good fighter but it's a fight I go into 100 per cent confident of winning.
"I've worked very hard to get that belt - a 10-year career went into getting that and I'm not going to give it up easily. I'll be hanging onto that title by my fingernails if needs be. I'm expecting a tough fight but that's what I've prepared for and I'm going to come out the winner."
Promoter Ricky Hatton declared: "Obviously Matthew boxed brilliantly against Gianluca Branco, who previously only lost to Arturo Gatti and Miguel Cotto, so you can't ask for better than that.
"That was a very proud night for me as a promoter and a brother, but I'm possibly even more proud of him for taking this fight on against the No 1 contender.
"If there's one thing you can say about us it's that we're certainly on the fearless side as this guy is in his prime and really hungry.
"It's his toughest fight but I think he'll come through it with flying colours. Bob Shannon's brought him on in leaps and bounds and if I ever did make a comeback that's who'd be in my corner.
"He's got better and better with each fight under Bob and, with 10 weeks to work on things this time, this has been the best training camp he's ever had and he's really blown my ears off with the way he's performed."
Hatton is a top-priced 4/7 with Boylesports to come out on top and can be backed at 9/10 there to prevail on points and 6/1 to secure a stoppage success.
Nuzhnenko is 19/10 with sportingbet to take the title home with him, 7/2 there to oblige via the judges' scorecards and 8/1 at Ladbrokes to get the job done inside the distance.
