"Hug-n-hook Hatton". Not a great boxer but a very very fine fighter in the boxing ring. He was matched cleverly for a long while and for Tszyu and Castillo, he caught them at the perfect time. I still rate the Tszyu win even if it was Kostya's big send off payday fight. In his biggest tests he got beaten soundly, but against 2 ATGs. The Collazo fight is good but razor thin and showed his true level, but Collazo was no bum. His regional fights were interesting but you could clearly see the holes in his game. Was fortunate to fight the among the worst champs of all time in Maussa. I think some of his wins are underrated specifically his win vs. Paulie, Urango was pretty tough in his day as well. Hatton was certainly a very very good fighter and has some brilliant body punching to observe in his career file. He spent the major chunk of his prime running up numbers with a fake title, but he isn't the only one. I'd rate him a solid B+ for a career. And an A+ attraction. If he was such a bum as some have claimed in the past, then he wouldn't be among the important wins of FMJ's career.
Not a chance it would be 50/50. Khan would buckle under the pressure and Hatton was also a pretty adept counter puncher, was good at feinting an attack with a stutter step to draw a lead and counter. His foot work too was underrated he was very good at cutting off the ring against mobile targets. Khan's lack of counter punching would mean Hatton could just press knowing nothing was coming back. Khan was also clueless inside, would just shell up, allowing Hatton to just maul him up close. Hatton breaks him down and stops him inside 10 rounds.
It would go the same way most Khans big fights do. Has success early, gets greedy and loses concentration and ends up losing.
He was okay. Not the best, not the worst. He made the most of his skillset and for a time had some success against likely better boxers as a result. In some ways that's more impressive than a fighter like Roy Jones who had otherworldly talent, but fell off a cliff when that went away.
Yeah Khan's ring IQ was abysmal. While most in the UK showered him with praise for winning a silver medal at the Olympics I was one who was critical of him for throwing away a gold medal by changing his tactics in round two. Like you put it, he got greedy and abandoned his boxing and then tried to close the show by being more aggressive vs a counter puncher, instead of making Kindelan lead like in round 1. Khan had premiere league level talent but Sunday pub league level ring IQ.
Suprised no-one has mentioned his footwork yet...it was really underated...Ricky was great at cutting the ring off and he was all over you like a rash ...I really liked hatton...I didn't think he'd defeat tszyu to be fair but he definitely shut me up ...I do think he got abit of a gift against collazo tho...he was Abit small for 147 and his bully you style wasn't gonna work against naturally bigger men. He had a great career though and helped get a lot of people into boxing..no shame in losing to Floyd and Pacquiao..the speech after the senchenko loss I think it was where he was saying he "wasn't a failure " was ****in heartbreaking
I mentioned his footwork and as you say it's underrated. He was very good at cutting off the ring and he was actually light on his feet which is why he was so effective at getting up close and creating angles for his shots. I think that surprised Mayweather early on in their fight, but Floyd being Floyd he just had so much more in tool box to pull out when he needed to.
Oh sorry mate..missed it lol Yeah I know what you mean..I wanted Ricky to win that fight badly n hoped his footwork n body attack might give him a chance but Mayweather was too good...shame he didn't fight everyone to further solidify that legacy ... personally I'd have loved to see Floyd vs tszyu at light welter ..it's one of my dream fights
Hugton was another hype job but credit to him made the most of it and then some.But you see the flaws he is a hugger puncher and swings wide.Open to return fire.He runs face first into turn buckle kind of boxer.