Judah was on 7 days notice as a novice. Bradley was past prime at 34 and a close fight. Harris and Corley were big fights too. Hatton also lost his 2 biggest fights so on that basis, I pick Witter, circular logic isn't it? It's also ignoring styles and Hatton's weakness against southpaws Also no Hatton wasn't facing top guys. Malignaggi came off 2 gift decisions, Urango came off a gift decision win, Castillo came off a close fight with Ngoudjo that could have gone the other way, Maussa was a bum with a fluke win Made the right decision for his career to be fair, still blatant duck
People bring up hatton struggling against collazo and losing to pac-man and mayweather, but lets be clear, witter struggled a bit against n'dou, kotelnyk, colin lynes, lost badly against judah also an inexperienced tim bradley(in hinsight decent effort) and was stopped against an inexperienced alexander. His stand out clear win is the vivian harris knock-out and in hind-sight it appears vivian had some problems and was also knocked out by carlos maussa a couple of fights before-hand. Witter might have had a claim to a fight with hatton, but there would only have been one winner pretty much at any time in their careers. For me hatton would have beat n'dou, kotelnyk,lynes, an inexperienced alexander comfortably, the only two i think that would have gave him problems would be an inexperienced bradley (would take hatton for the win tight but comfortable 12 round ud) and judah, which to me would have been a great fight, difficult to predict, would hatton's relentlessness break judah down or would judah's speed be too much for hatton, would have been a great fight anyways. Also think collazo who fought hatton would have beat witter for what it's worth.
Theres a reason that fight didnt happen because it would have been a big deal in the UK. Hatton's promoter knew Witter style spelled bad news, especially after Hatton got inserted on his backside by the light hitting but boxing Eamonn Magee. It wasnt until Hatton left ****** that his flaws started to show up because he was facing more diverse styles on the world class level. I agree Witter was nothing great, but he had a horrible style for a swarmer like Hatton, who had poor defense. Witter was a lot more more mobile than even Luis Collazo.
Nearly every brits flaws gets exposed at world class level fella, if witter would have fought in that class his flaws would have been exposed badly as they were against judah - he basically just survived. Also magee could dig a bit. The reason people's say hatton had poor defence was that he used his offence as his defence - that was his style and until he hit real world class level it wasn't a problem because the guys he went up against couldn't handle his offence - in much the same way witter wouldn't be able to deal with it. A hatton v witter fight would never have been a great watch due to the fact witter was an awkward opponent, no one really looked good against him. Agree they avoided him a bit, but think it was down to that more than witter would have beat him. Ricky was attracting a fan-base so obviously they were trying to put him in with guys he would look good against, but at the same time he would have beat witter comfortably - ricky was on a different level to witter.
This flies in the face of all available evidence. Witter CLEARLY wanted the fight...so why didn't it happen? Ricky was filling out the MEN and fighting plenty of opponents of lesser standing than Witter, indeed Hatton was fighting lots of guys to whom he was on a different level...he fought them - why not Witter? Because his management and/or Hatton himself didn't want the fight. I believe that anybody familiar with British Boxing & the boxing poitics of the time would be aware of this...it was a big question at the time - why isn't Hatton fighting Witter?
The thread is about who would win between hatton and witter. And hatton would have won comfortably. Sure i ve explained it above witter was avoided because hatton was attracting a fan-base and they were putting him in with guys that he looked good against, it's a business, there were building a fighter. Witter was an awkward opponent - no-one looked good against him, so he was avoided. But if the fight was made hatton would have beat him comfortably - thats the truth. Ricky sold out the men regardless of the opponent, he earned the right to pick who he fought. Got to ask why witter didn't sell out arena's it's because he wasn't that great and was sometimes not very good to watch!!! Also outside boxing circles witter wasn't known.
I understand what the thread is about. I'm sure if Hatton and his management shared your confidence in his ability to beat Witter they would have taken the fight. Witter was making a lot of noise in Hatto's direction, it was THE biggest fight against a UK fighter for Hatton - there was huge demand for it this side of the pond. Witter on his own couldn't sell tickets - Witter v Hatton was different - believe me, to understand the size of the fight, it helped if you were living in the UK at the time. Glad you agree that Witter was avoided. I don't agree that Hatton had earned the right to pick who he fought...as the champion, you should fight the best available contenders...at Euro & British level, Witter was clearly the best. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree...
Allot of people had Collazo beating Hatton too. Witter was fighting guys who were generally prime while Hatton fought the old, the small and those coming off gift decisions BTW Witter arguably did better against Ndou than Cotto, not an easy fight for Hatton that one We don't know if Hatton would have beaten Corley and Judah because he ducked both fights around 2003-2004, actually removing himself from mandatory positions with the WBO and WBA Witter would have got exposed on the world level against the likes of Mayweather yes, irrelevant to this fight, Hatton isn't near that level Hatton just couldn't beat top southpaws, even Magee put him down who was several levels below Witter. If that was Witter instead of Magee Witter likely finishes the job I don't think you've seen Judah-Witter, it was a closish fight in reality, Witter didn't 'just survive', he made Judah look foolish at times
Sorry, Witter is a level below Hatton IMO, what did he ever actually achieve? he spent his life slagging off Hatton and achieving **** all himself. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJS-HttWeio&feature=related[/ame]
British, European and WBC Champion beating plenty of top 10 contenders? Ricky achieved more beating Tyszu, but that aside all his wins were cherry picked guys he knew he could beat
WBC champ mate. Why did Ricky not want to fight him? Why was he willing to fight anyone BUT Witter? Disgraceful shithousery from Ricky