Paulie Malignaggi and Ricky Hatton are very different characters, but they can both laugh at themselves. While Ricky Hatton walked to the ring in a comedy fat suit, Malignaggi could see the funny side after a very bad hair day.

Image is a big deal with the New Yorker, hence he walked to the ring for his IBF light-welterweight title defence against Lovemore N'Dou for Saturday night's chief supporting contest in a bizarre blue mask and wearing dreadlock hair extensions. It proved to be a very bad decision. “Pastafarian” was how Frank Maloney, who promoted the bill, described the brash Italian-American's new look.

Contracts were signed for a November bout against Hatton in the United States, but Malignaggi still had to look good. He didn't. Almost the first punch N'Dou threw dislodged Malignaggi's locks from their bindings and his hair almost constantly obscured his vision. Various attempts were made to tape it up but at the end of round eight the scissors came out to produce a rag doll look. After suffering a broken hand in round six, Malignaggi had to box one-handed for the second half of the bout, yet clung on to his title by a narrow split decision.

“I was trying to figure out a wacky look but my hair was a total disaster,” Malignaggi said. He has had surgery on his left hand on three occasions but is confident the latest injury will be healed in time for his date with Hatton, which Lou DiBella, Malignaggi's promoter, hopes will be at Madison Square Garden.

“Paulie and Ricky in New York would be a massive event,” DiBella said. However, four Las Vegas resorts and other cities in the US and Canada are believed to have made offers.

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