Well I'll be a monkey's uncle.

I expected British pound-for-pound champion Ricky Hatton to waltz into Boston's Banknorth Garden like nobody's business and strip Luis Collazo of his WBA welterweight title. Instead, Hatton received a gift decision in a close fight which often saw the slick Brooklyn southpaw Collazo land combinations and hurt the "Hitman" in the final round.

The three judges scored it 115-112 (twice) and 114-113, all for Hatton. I scored it 114-113 for Collazo. Hatton floored Collazo within seconds of the opening round, when he hit his off-balanced opponent with a left hook. But it was all Collazo for the next five rounds, as he scored with quick combinations while twisting his body and using angles to avoid Hatton's mauling, smothering style. Hatton made a bit of a comeback winning rounds seven, eight and nine, but was hurt in the twelfth round by Collazo's combinations, and had to hold on to prevent being knocked down.

Hatton was successful landing hard body shots, and like a pitbull that smells blood, stayed on his opponent all night long. Poetry in motion he is not, but it was his effective aggression that won him the fight in the judges eyes. Ironically, Collazo made Hatton look so ordinary that it will probably make big names like Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather, and Oscar De La Hoya want to fight him even more, if only because it means avoiding Collazo. Collazo, 26-2 (12), proved that as a natural welterweight, he was the bigger, stronger fighter, and represents a sort of poor man's Winky Wright at 147. Hatton was defintely puzzled by Collazo's southpaw style, but give him credit for never stopping to find a way to win.

Hatton improves to 41-0 (30), and while it wasn't pretty, remains undefeated. The fight was mediocre and will probably not raise the market value of either boxer; the tattooed Collazo will no doubt have more difficulty landing fights against big names becuase of his slick style and high probability of pulling an upset. As for Hatton, the difficulty he encountered in this fight no doubt takes some of the lustre of his career-defining victory over Kostya Tszyu, though because of his undisputed title at 140 and now his WBA trinket at 147, will still be hunted after by big names.

Hatton-Mosley, Hatton-Judah, Hatton-Cotto, Hatton-Margarito, Hatton-Gatti. These are still intriguing matchups at either 140 or 147. But the pride of Manchester no longer looks unbeatable. And you can thank Luis Collazo for that.