RICKY HATTON W12 JUAN LAZCANO; PAULIE MALIGNAGGI W12 (split) LOVEMORE NDOU

In his first fight after getting flattened by Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ricky Hatton predictably pounded out a unanimous decision win over Juan Lazcano but not without a couple of shaky spells that made one wonder whether he has become a vulnerable fighter.

Hatton was mostly dominant but the way his legs buckled from a left hook high on the head in the eighth round was cause was concern, as was the way that Hatton was shaken in the 10th, again by Lazcano’s left hook.

Obviously, fighters are going to get hit and they have to overcome wobbly moments, but Hatton had the look, in the eighth and 10th, of a boxer who might have been in danger of being stopped had he been in with an opponent capable of bringing greater firepower to bear than Lazcano was able to muster.

Hatton’s trainer, Billy Graham, was well aware of the potential for something calamitous happening, telling Hatton before the start of the last round not to go for the stoppage — “It’s not worth the risk.” By this stage, though, Lazcano was weary and battered, and Hatton pushed on through, taking the fight to Lazcano and doing his best to force a stoppage, as in fact he had been trying to do all night. However, as Nick Charles noted in the Versus commentary, Lazcano was not going away. Although well beaten, he gritted it out to the bitter end and I was pleased that the game underdog at least had the satisfaction of hearing the final bell.

Hatton said afterwards that if he had just boxed and moved it would have been too boring, and as always it is easy to see why the Manchester fans love this man-of-the-people champion. He made it harder for himself than was really necessary by steaming into Lazcano and trying to break down the proud and stubborn veteran from Sacramento, CA.

I thought that, overall, Hatton was workmanlike without showing the vibrancy of some of his earlier wins. He looked in fine trim physically in his return to the 140-pound division after the unsuccessful welterweight challenge against Mayweather, but the aggression was not as free-flowing, not quite as fierce, as it has been in the past. He certainly gave Lazcano a hammering but it seemed to me that Hatton was unable to sustain a fight-ending type of attack. He did his damage in spurts and seemed willing to remain in the clinches.

Lazcano, 33, in his first fight in 15 months, was just as durable and brave as I had expected him to be but Hatton’s strength, greater speed and body punching were always going to be too much for him. I thought that Lazcano won a couple of rounds but generally he was too slow with his punches. It seemed that he would get ready to punch only for Hatton to be on top of him, banging him to the body and pushing him back before the Mexican-born fighter could pull the trigger. Lazcano’s big moments, in the eighth and 10th, came when Hatton charged recklessly in the manner that saw him get drilled by Mayweather’s left hook in Las Vegas.

Still, Hatton was an overwhelming winner on the scorecards and it will do him good psychologically, I think, to have come through a fight such as this after the traumatic experience of getting knocked flat on his back in Las Vegas. He was rocked, yes, but he fought through the difficult moments — in fact, he came back so strongly in the eighth that Lazcano was the one who looked in danger of being stopped as the round ended.

It is possible that, with this fight out of the way, Hatton can look better in the next one, which is expected to be against Paulie Malignaggi, who unimpressively outpointed Lovemore Ndou on the same show.

When Malignaggi’s hair extensions started flying around in the first round I thought there was a real risk that he could somehow end up blowing the fight against the man he had outclassed last June.

I expected a tougher fight for Malignaggi this time but I didn’t think I would see him floundering his way to a split decision win. After producing some sharp boxing in the first half of the fight — when the hair extensions weren’t coming undone — Malignaggi ended up winning on youth and grit as he pushed Ndou to the ropes and moved his hands just enough to steal rounds. An injured right hand obviously handicapped Malignaggi, but what concerned me about the Brooklyn boxer's performance was the way he couldn’t seem to keep his legs under him in the closing rounds when, as Wally Matthews noted in the Versus commentary, the fight had become a mess.

Luckily for Malignaggi, Ndou did not have the wherewithal to seize control of the fight. Despite his impressively sculpted physique, Ndou seemed to lack zest. He is 36 but looked older as he allowed Malignaggi in effect to outscuffle him in what all through had looked a winnable fight for the Australian-naturalised South African.

It was the second disappointing performance in a row for Malignaggi but his extrovert personality and Hatton’s popularity can still make a meeting between them a colourful event.