Richard John Hatton, MBE - has enough time passed to fairly rate "The Hitman"?

At 147 I would favour Cotto. Cotto was a terrific boxer - puncher whose skills, I feel, would have seen him through a tough fight. Plus, Ricky really wasn't a welterweight. However, at 140, just after the Tszyu fight when both where champions, I always favoured Hatton. Cotto was more of a come forward, less all round fighter back then, so Hatton wouldn't have had to go looking for him. Also, Hatton was an unrelenting beast back then, whereas Cotto was starting to struggle with the 140 weight limit. I think Hatton would have wore Cotto down in a brutal fight.

 

Good post. Very similar to how I remember things, we must be about the same age. I find it strange how many boxing fans like to take shots at him. It reminds me of when fans of a band turn on them when they sell out and go mainstream. It becomes ‘cool’ to not like them.

He was a very underrated boxer. As someone said before prior to Tyzsu he was in and out, jabbing more etc. It was frustrating to watch at times later in his career when you could see what he needed to do and that he had the ability to do it but he just refused to do so. He would have given Pacquiao a far harder fight if he’d used his head instead of trying to steam roll him.

People like to make out he was just alright but people forget Mayweather was guided through that by Cortez and didn’t enjoy that fight. I always found it strange how Cortez allowed Hopkins to use similar tactics Hatton tried that night against Calzaghe .

 

I always find it strange when boxers like hatton lose discipline between camps. I wonder why no one grabbed him from the ear and told him to smarten up.

his career might have been better if he didn't try to play the working class lager lout character.

 

tszyu was rated number 3 pfp at the time Hatton beat him.He had just destroyed sharmba mitchall in 3 rounds and had him down 4 times leaving top rated mitchall with a hematoma on his head. i feared for hatton going into that fight with tszyu.He looked that good against mitchall.Haters try to change history.

 

Hatton would have run stevie cruz out of the ring.

 

I don't think he'd have beaten Mayweather regardless but before the Pacquaio fight he managed to become a two weight world champion and the undisputed best at 140. If his lifestyle did him considerable damage then he'd have presumably been the best in the world if he lived like a monk.

I also don't think it was a character. That was just what he was like. People were fans of Hatton because he was an Everyman nice guy.

 

I wasn’t trying to start a slagging match. I seriously really don’t rate Ricky: he just wasn’t great. A basic boxer. Very nice guy though.

 

More unless Parriss is the ref.

 

Hatton was also prime at 140. When Cruz beat McGuigan, that fight was at 126.

 

Tszyu had stopped Mitchell before their 2nd as well. Sharmba wasn't prime either. Also Kostya was somewhat inactive and had had surgery before that as well. I think his high rating was a similar case to Hagler later in his career: past their best, inactive fighters still rated highly because they hadn't lost in awhile. Neither Kostya nor Marvin was anywhere near his best at those respective stages of their careers, and it's pretty obvious.

 

A lot of things suddenly become 'obvious' in hindsight. Time and dislike for a certain fighter amongst certain elements of the boxing community tend to result in revision of history. However, on contemporary evidence, nobody but nobody was saying that there had been any notable decline in Tszyu who was a huge favourite. Both Tszyu and Mitchell had been clearly beating everyone else in the division for years. If either of them were over the hill then somebody would have beaten them. Instead, Tszyu had not lost for 8 years whilst beating the likes of Mitchell, Judah, Tackie, Leija and several others, while Mitchell hadn't lost to anyone other than Tszyu in ten years. What boxrec doesn't tell you either is that Mitchell quit on his stool due to a knee injury in their first meeting as opposed to being stopped properly.

 

They were both clearly past their best. All you had to do was watch them. Sharmba was stopped by Floyd, who wasn't a big puncher above 135, 2 fights after Tszyu 2. No question he was past his best. PS I started to dislike Hatton only after the Parriss/ Tszyu debacle. When I hear Hattons fan give out about Cortez, I laugh my ass off

 

KT was done by the time he faced Hatton. Fought 9 rounds in 2.5 years, then faces a mauling, rough house S.O.B like Hatton. KT knew it was time before he stepped in the ring. That's why he quit on his stool and never fought again. Decent win for Hatton, but not against the same guy that embarrassed Judah.

 

Out of curiosity why is one of value but not the other?

Both Parriss and Cortez dictated how those fights would be fought by what they allowed or didn’t allow. I personally think both refs did a poor job, but I am not sure either truly affected the result?

Just my $0.02

 

Hatton's fans always complain about what a poor job Cortez did but NEVER admit the even worse job Parriss did, and always say what a great fight Hatton fought against Tszyu without taking any responsibility for his filth.