On This Day: Ricky Hatton defends WBU title against Carlos Vilches

| 12 June 2021

On This Day: Ricky Hatton defends WBU title against Carlos Vilches

The three ringside judges in Manchester scored the bout 119-108 (twice) and 120-107 to give Ricky Hatton his 36th successive professional win.

Ricky Hatton made a successful 13th defence of his WBU light-welterweight title by defeating Argentinian Carlos Vilches on this day in 2004.

Hatton was pushed all the way to a points decision by his Argentinian opponent on a frustrating night at Manchester's MEN Arena.

The result was never in doubt with the three ringside judges scoring 119-108 (twice), and 120-107 to give Hatton his 36th successive professional win.

WBU light-welterweight world championship bout — Ricky Hatton saw off Carlos Vilches to defend his WBU light-welterweight title at Manchester's MEN Arena (Gareth Copley/PA)

But Hatton lacked a killer punch and admitted his performance was not good enough.

Hatton, then 25, said: "To be honest I felt really comfortable – never once did I not feel in control or losing my grip. But I felt flat and tired, it was an under-par performance.

"I don't have too many bad nights but you can mark one down for tonight. That was a little bit below average."

Hatton did drop Vilches to the canvas with a fine-looking left hook in round five but referee Darryl Ribbink deemed it a low blow and gave the challenger time to recover.

For the majority of the remainder of the contest Vilches hung on determinedly and largely succeeded in silencing another five-figure crowd.

Vilches looked determined to make a fight of it and dealt well with a cracking left uppercut from the champion midway through the first round.

Vilches got the chance to open up a little in the third but lacked the power in his punches to change the course of the contest.

For a moment in the fifth round Hatton appeared to have got his man but Vilches got up after his brief respite and hung on, firing a number of unpunished low blows of his own in the later rounds.

The crowd got on his back and cheered Hatton's desperate attempts for a late knockout but the Englishman had to settle for a points win.