Unbeaten Swiss next up for Hatton

Matthew Hatton will make the second defence of his European welterweight title against Switzerland’s Robert Belge at Bolton Arena on 26 November, according to the EBU. The 31-year-old Belge is unbeaten in 26 fights but suffered the only blemish on his record when being held to a 12-round draw by Andrei Abramenka for the lightly regarded IBC crown in May.

All but three of Belge’s contests have taken place in Switzerland and the 31-year-old, whilst compiling a statistically impressive ledger, has only registered four stoppages despite mixing in fairly modest company.

In contrast, the 29-year-old Hatton scored the biggest win of his career last time out after recovering from a first round knockdown to unanimously outpoint former WBA title challenger Yuriy Nuzhnenko to retain his EBU crown in July.