The new Ricky Hatton was much like the old one: a dominant powerhouse of a boxer. Only this one boxed with a spring in his step and a sparkle in his eye. Floyd Mayweather Sr, his new trainer, had remodelled a rampaging bull into a calculated assassin. So much for being past it.

If truth be told, the old Ricky Hatton would probably have had far too much for Paulie Malignaggi. Boxing is a sport of levels and the one that Hatton occupies is a league above Malignaggi's. But if the New Yorker was really the second best light-welterweight, Hatton's domination over a division he has never come close to losing in will go on for a long time.

His dominance of Malignaggi in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in the early hours of yesterday was total. As soon as Hatton had hurt him near the end of the second round with a hard right cross, the possibility that Hatton could lose became remote.

The American, who had spent much of the build-up complaining of Hatton's supposed tactics of holding and hitting, spent much of the remaining nine rounds clinging on for survival.

Malignaggi's tactics succeeded in making the bout ugly and he certainly made Hatton work for his victory. But for most of the contest, he just took steady punishment and 28 seconds into round 11, James “Buddy” McGirt, a former two-weight world champion and Malignaggi's trainer, pulled his man out.

The sport in Britain has risen to another peak. In Hatton and Joe Calzaghe - whom many believe is the best boxer pound for pound in the world - Britain has two of the sport's biggest stars, while David Haye is fast chasing them after his heavyweight debut against Monte Barrett last week. On three successive weekends, that trio has demolished American opposition.

In his previous bout, against Juan Lazcano in May, Hatton struggled. He put this down to a chest infection during training, although he admitted that he was left full of self-doubt after a laboured points success. But Hatton, who many were suggesting should retire after being stopped by Floyd Mayweather Jr, his trainer's estranged son, in the same ring nearly a year ago, now has a golden future ahead of him.

He is likely next to face either Oscar De La Hoya or Manny Pacquiao, who meet at the same venue a week on Saturday. Hatton will be ringside, but can pick and choose what he wants to do. The options are limitless.

“It is like from one end of the scale to the other after the Mayweather fight,” Hatton said. “I said after the Lazcano fight ‘Am I passed it?' I slammed that door finally shut.”

The changes under Mayweather Sr were obvious. In every bout since he won the IBF title from Kostya Tszyu in 2005, Hatton had neglected his boxing for raw aggression. Here, he went back to trying to manoeuvre his way in close, drawing Malignaggi's jab, feinting and alternating his attacks.

Hatton's best weapon was his jab, which he used not as a range-finder but as a ramrod that jolted the New Yorker's head each time it landed. If Malignaggi had been studying the past three years of Hatton tapes, he would have found nothing that prepared him for what he was facing.

“People asked me before the fight whether Floyd was going to make the difference,” Lou DiBella, Malignaggi's promoter, said. “I thought zebras don't change their stripes, but tonight the friggin' zebra looked like a racehorse.”

And Hatton said that he believed there was plenty of improvement to come. “Bearing in mind the awkwardness of the opponent I have only been with Floyd seven weeks and the new things I've been trying to work on, I've got to be happy with my performance,” he said.

“There was loads I did right and loads I did wrong, but we have only been together seven weeks. If he made that much difference in seven weeks, what will another training camp do?”

Hatton, with Noel and Liam Gallagher, of Oasis, holding the IBO and Ring magazine light-welterweight title belts that were on the line, came to the ring wearing the fatsuit he wore before the Lazcano bout. Fortunately he managed to get through the ropes.

The first change in Hatton was that he wore black shorts, rather than his customary light blue. The second was the way he bounded after Malignaggi, who looked a possible winner for the first five minutes only. It took that long for Hatton to find his range, which he did 30 seconds from the end of round two. Both went for right hands but Hatton's was the quicker and caught Malignaggi square, forcing the American to dip at the knees.

After that, Malignaggi was reduced to holding, smothering and ducking low, rarely having the confidence to try to box. Hatton had to work hard to free his arms from the tangle Malignaggi created, but if the Mancunian had a fault, it was that he took unnecessary punches because he had total disregard for the American's power.

The beating got worse and by the ninth, Malignaggi's survival instincts had become so desperate that he was clinging to Hatton's legs. Before the eleventh, McGirt warned his charge that he would pull him out if he did not start to throw punches. He did just that, despite Malignaggi's obvious annoyance.

Malignaggi had replaced the hair extensions of his previous bout with a cropped style shaved with a design that resembled a tyre mark. By the end he looked like a man that had been run over by a truck.

Malignaggi, who turned 28 yesterday, afterwards presented Hatton with four bottles of Blue Moon beer, which he said had made him think of his opponent. In future he will think of Hatton every time he has a headache, too.

- Matthew Hatton, 27, recorded the best win of his career as he claimed nearly every round in registering a unanimous points decision over Ben Tackie on the MGM Grand Garden Arena undercard. A switch in trainers from Billy Graham to Lee Beard seems to have done wonders for the younger Hatton brother, who was one-paced when losing to Craig Watson in a Commonwealth welterweight title bout in May. Another winner on the card was Sirimongkol Singwancha, the former WBC super-featherweight champion from Thailand, whom Ricky Hatton has signed to his new promotional company.