How good (or not so good) was Ricky Hatton?

I rate him somewere inbetween the good fighters (Bradley, Berto, Collazo) and the ATG's(Mayweather Manny etc)

Massively underrate foot speet, hand speed and reflexes.

For a fighter that kept his hands low and fought on the inside he was suprisingly hard to hit, due to his reflexes.

Watch the mayweather fight, the most accurate puncher of our era, and he barely landed for large portions of the fight.

He fought at a very high pace that 99% of fighters couldn't match.

His drastic weight drops later in his career let to him being very vulnerable in the chin are. Watch the Kosta Fight, then The Mayweather or Collazo fight to see how badly his chin had faded.

Overall a Very good fighter.

 

Decent fighter at world level.

 

Ricky was a very good fighter with skills that were both underrated and under-used. He was an excellent pressure fighter with good speed and movement of foot, decent hand-speed and solid power. He also had the intangibles that we look for in fighters/champions - brave, determined and tough. I was a big fan but I realise enough to know that he can't be classed as great. He lost to decisively to Mayweather and Pac and they are 'great' fighters. Ricky, for as much as I enjoyed his career and thought he was a good bloke, doesn't match up to the kind of levels Mayweather and Pac enjoy. A very good, solid entertaining champion who gave his fans some great nights to shout about and I wish him well.

 

On a scale from zero to 'two and a half thumbs up' I would rate him as 'very good point seven'.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZFQCgsVw8[/ame]

 

Good fighter...better than a lot on here give him credit for. His forward agressive fight style was very effective and the pace he fought at wore so many fighters down. His big lack for me was his defence...hands low seemed to use his head to block punches. I just cant help but think how much better he'd have been with his hands up. He was without doubt way outskilled vs his 2 losses. But I do always wonder how much better he'd have done with Mayweather had Ricky been able to fight his fight n not had the ref against him as he did that night.

Beating Tszu was his real moment of glory and he proved his chin in that fight against a real banger.

All in all had he lived better between fights and had more defensive skill/higher gaurd he'd have been much better still.

 

Ricky was Great to watch and he was involved in some of the BIGGEST fights that a British fighter has ever seen and possibly was the most successful ever in terms of pound notes (or Naz/Lewis).

.....but he wasted alot of his Prime not fighting the top boys in the division. He was 38-0 before he challenged for a recognised World title. IMO he wasted the 7 or 8 fights prior to that defending his dog**** title against washed up has beens (Oliveira,Tackie, Phillips) or never will-be's (Rios, Pedersen, Vilches, Stewart). Those years were a large part of his prime IMO.

I was at the MEN for his fight against Kostya Tszyu in what was surely Rickys finest hour. It's the best atmosphere I've experienced (got tingles thinking about it now). Ricky was a machine that night and it would've took something extremely special to beat him.

Being a BIG fan of British Boxing though, I'll remember him more the fight that he didn't give us against Junior Witter. Undefendable and inexcusable actions by Team Hatton IMO.

Glad to see Ricky seems to have his head sorted again and I wish him a happy retirement

 

Hatton will go down as one of the best 140pounders thats forsure.
He got smoked by the pound for pound best and pacman will be ATG

Hatton was good but should of stayed at 140 and not fought PBF and he should of keep fighting after the pacman loss.

 

I just don't understand the recent number threads that are/were being created suggesting that Ricky Hatton was overrated. I will be the first to stand tall and yell to anyone who will listen and proclaim that Ricky hatton was indeed a Top-Level Fighter in his Prime. His two losses were against Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather....NO SHAME IN THAT!!!!

There were only two fights I wished could have been made with hatton...Miguel Cotto (at 147lbs) and fellow Countryman Junior Witter.

 

world class fighter just short of the elite. His defence was his downfall and going up to 147 meant he didnt clean out 140 like he perhaps should. But he has plenty of solid wins he just stayed with warren a year 2 long.

Cotto at 147??? Cotto would have been too strong i think. Hatton style relied so much on how pyhsical he was with opponents and he never really out powerd anyone at 147 bar a shot to hel castillo.
cotto at 140 and the fight swings the other way and i think Ricky would have stopped him.

 

Good fighter at the highest level.

Tszyu, Collazo, Urango, Castillo, Malignaggi on his record. Just fell short of the very best.

 

thumbsup

That's about right

 

He was pitiful.

Didn't beat anyone of note, did well against Mayweather until Cortez ruined the fight, but at leats showed more heart than JMM did against the same opponent.

Utterly devastated by Pac.

He was an average fighter that was marketed well.