Ricky Hatton: I want the Khan fight.....

i see what you mean, but limmond isnt a bad opponent within ur first 20 fights, neither is gomez, neither is st. claire, nor graham earl.

in fact his resume when comparing to hattons first 20 fights are actually alot better.

but i agree to an exn, i wouldve liked to have seen him with better opposition early on but its not a major issue, he was 18 when he turned pro the kids got a lot of time on his side

 

Different careers develop at different paces for different reasons. You can't always compare progress after a certain number of fights or at a certain age.

 

Definately didn't earn his shot the hard way but I suppose he deserves some sort of respect due to the fact he brings plenty £'s to the table.
(not right but it's a business unfortunately)

i think his flaws would've only been corrected earlier if he changed his style of fighting(like he has with Roach now)

If he fought bigger guys earlier with his reckless style(which give him credit was exciting) he'd have got put down nearly every time by anyone with half a dig,maybe even knocked out. The fact Willie Limond,no disrespect to him,put Khan down,it would've been suicide to put him in with bigger guys.

Warren has made more money for Khan than any other promoter in the World could've.

I think 'fish eyes' deserves abuse most times,but this is not one of those times.

 

only difference i can really see is khan had millions of ppl watchin his progress under a microscope after he turned pro on itv. While hatton wasnt really in the public eye for a long time as he was on friday fight nights alot of the time

 

The quality of the opposition isn't really questionable.... as you say it compares favourably with other British fighters within the same timeframe (no. of fights). The main problem lies with the styles of those fighters, i.e. non-punchers, generally boxer types, generally from lower weight classes.

Had he gone from that phase into competing at, say, European level with genuine lightweights, he would have learned sufficiently, and the bad KO loss might not have happened.

As you correctly point out, he turned over at 18 - his clamour to be the youngest British champion sort of rail roaded him down this route, if that was to be the case. Someone ought to have told him that greatness (or potentially so) is more attributable to longevity, rather than being the youngest guy to do something.

You could name countless examples in various sports to back that up.

:good

 

My main complaint with Khan's career is not that they've been fighting cans because his standard of opposition is okay, but that they chose guys like St Clair, Kristjansen etc that were small and featherfisted. Then they suddenly throw him in with a Colombian banger. It was bizarre.

 

Is that not a pretty big difference?:huh

 

i was originally saying that khans first 20 opposition were alot better than hattons, then i think someone said there wasnt much difference and i replied that alot of the difference was khan was on tv and hatton was on sky undercards etc lol u get the drift

 

I disagree. TFFP pointed out in another thread that Khan was woefully underprepared going into the Prescott fight which lead to that calamitous first round ko, and I agree. Instead of exposing Khan to a variety of styles and incrementally increasing the ko % of his opponents, Warren continued to feed Khan sub-standard, undersized opponents which did little in developing him as a fighter.
With Khan's olympic pedigree, his status as a poster boy for a multi-racial Britain and his subsequent exposure on terrestrial television, fast-tracking him to a world title should've been quite a formality, even taking into account his rather obvious physical flaws.

 

The pressure has been on Khan from an early stage in his career but the same reasons responsible for that pressure has also allowed him to cut a few corners on the way to a world title.

Swings and Roundabouts!!!

 

Limond was great opponent, only trouble is at that time Limond had been inactive for almost TWO years when he faced Khan.
Khan got Limond at the right time, cos as we all saw on the night, Limond after his early success tired dramatically, due IMO to ring inactivity.

Great win for a young Khan, but Warren got his timing spot on with that matchup.

 

He is World Champion tho....after only 22 fights.

Prescott was a mistake,a big mistake. What do think would've happened if Khan was fighting with his earlier Reckless style against bigger guys who can punch?
Remember,Limmond and Gomez put him down.

If its so easy,How would you have fast tracked him to his World Title?

Warren pulled off a master stroke getting him in with Barrera/Kotelnik

Fact is,Khan has an infants chin and is world champion fighting to full arena's and is on PPV. Roach and Warren both deserve credit for getting him where he is.

 

Limmond was his 13th fight actually. Would you ,if you were Khans promoter,increase the KO% ratio of his next opponent??

Really???

 

He would have been alright against Prescott if he'd fought a few decent boxer-punchers prior to that. He would have felt their power and thought 'okay, I've got to fight smart here and not make mistakes'. But you saw his mindset right from the off, he was swinging for the hills against Prescott; he was complacent.

 

I think Khan would KO Hatton without too much trouble. All Hattons effort would go into making the weight, and he doesent have the defence to deal with Khans speed.