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

I am pretty much the biggest non Brit Hatton fan around and have never said that.

I do think Parriss allowed Hatton to get away with a lot in order to fight the way Hatton wants...

I think Cortez restricted Hatton from being able to fight the way he wants.

I am not sure either outcome would change drastically, but do think both refs suck.

I am a big Cortez detractor but just watched Tapia vs Ayala I and he did a good job on that fight and may have been the perfect ref for that fight.

I don’t know enough about Parriss to know if he was consistently poor or biased during that fight. Cortez is just consistently bad outside of a few decent jobs.

 

I think I’m his prime he would clean out the current crop of 140s today, including Mikey. Hatton vs Mikey, Bradley, Khan would all be interesting.

Short of being Elite, he’s a B+ fighter and on the night he beat Kotsya he was an A- level fighter, with the help of the ref.

 

I think I’m his prime he would clean out the current crop of 140s today, including Mikey. Hatton vs Mikey, Bradley, Khan would all be interesting.

Short of being Elite, he

Cotto would have murdered him, at any weight. Cotto was that much better, he took his power and chin all the way up to MW. Cotto was more precise, better footer, hit harder, better combinations, longer reach, better jab and left hook, stronger, more power. Cotto was a legit A- to A level fighter. Only the likes of Floyd, Pac, prime Oscar, Mosley, Whitaker etc. elites of elites were better than him. Guys I consider A+

 

Good factual honest post
I tip my hat to you sir

 

Watch Rogan Sexton 1 and MAB Khan and see the true Parriss for yourself. As far as the 1st sentence in your thread that I am responding to, I don't know what statement you're referring to that you never said as I didn't directly quote you. But generally Hatton fans take umbrage with Cortez but give Parriss a free pass. In fact I don't remember any Hatton fans, outside of you on this thread, that accept the garbage that Parriss was on that night as well as the filth that was Hatton.

 

Lol I am not sure there are any Hatton fans on this forum outside of me...so I don’t have much help. Oh well

 

This thread alone would indicate otherwise lol.

 

He was very good, especially for what he had to work with, super short, short arms, Nordic features, cut easy, probably not a great all around athlete, loved the drink, but he was very dominant in his weight class for a short time period, and to be fair 2 of his 3 losses were to the two best of there shared era

 

I think Hatton could have achieved more, if he's simply been more dedicated.
Blowing up outrageously between fights done him no favours at all.
He was probably a better fighter on the way up to the Tszyu fight.
Then he was fighting 4 or 5 times a year so probably didn't have much down time to indulge in excess due to being in training.
However when he reached the top level fighting a couple of times a year, he had too much time to indulge in the binge eating and drinking.
He became overall much sloppier as his career progressed and less explosive.
Overall a good fighter, not a great one who could have been better.

 

His absolute nonsense patter of "fighting for the P4P championship", or whatever he said, during run up to Pacquiao fight thoroughly pissed me off, and I've never taken to him since.

 

Hatton was a good world-level fighter, nothing more - but managed to attain the fanfare and earnings of a great fighter because he was carefully managed and brilliantly marketed. I've not seen all of the responses to this article, but amongst the ones I have seen I've seen people calling him a near-ATG and putting him in the same league as someone such as Cotto, which I think is being way too kind to him. I'm not even convinced that Cotto deserves 'great' status, never mind Hatton.

Tszyu was Hatton's breakthrough win, but don't forget he'd been a professional for almost eight years and forty fights by that stage. Frank Warren and Sky Sports did a great job of building his profile; by 2002 he was considered the great hope of British boxing as Hamed and Lewis' careers began to wind down, and he was routinely filling out the MEN Arena despite his competition remaining stagnant for a good three or four years. A world title fight against a big-name opponent was long overdue by 2005, and while I'm not going to say that his victory over Tszyu is meaningless, or that Tszyu had absolutely nothing left, I do think it's fair to say that he got Kostya at the right time. I feel that Hatton was no better a fighter in 2005 than he'd been in 2002-03, but Warren and Sky knew they could feed the public fairly straightforward opposition for Hatton and they'd gobble it up until the title picture at 140 lb looked a little easier to negotiate. It was still a risk putting Hatton in with Tszyu in 2005, but a very calculated and smart one. The belts were now fragmented, Tszyu was nearing retirement and Billy Graham was pouring cold water all over the idea of Hatton-Cotto, skilfully navigating charges of ducking by playing the old, "Let the fight get bigger, the money would be an insult to the two lads if it happened now, it's one for a few years down the line" schtick.

Post-Tszyu, his career is good, but hardly remarkable. Utterly outclassed and then swatted with contempt by Floyd and Manny respectively. Good wins and performances against guys such as Maussa, Castillo and Malignaggi balanced with far less convincing showings against the likes of Collazo, Urango and Lazcano. Fair enough, he still found a way to win those fights, because I said he was a capable performer at world level with considerable talent. But he didn't distinguish himself from that chasing pack with any more distinction than a whole host of other fighters who haven't been given shots at Floyd or Manny - the difference is, Hatton had the financial clout and fanbase behind him, whereas those other guys didn't.

I also think he got way too easy a ride from the British press for his failure to even consider accommodating a fight against Witter at some stage, along with the aforementioned indifference to Cotto when they were both 140 lb titlists, which is at least a little more understanding. Hatton somehow forged a reputation as a 'fight anyone' operator, but he wasn't, as evidenced by his relatively few fights at world title level and the missing out on the kind of fights noted here. Yes, he fought the pound for pound kings, but it's a hell of a lot easier to say you'll fight the best when you're the underdog with less to lose and can earn a career-high payday in defeat. Of course he wanted to fight Floyd and Manny. But when it came to really risky fights where his reputation would have been (to a certain degree) on the line with a real risk, he and / or his team were much more content to play it relatively safely.

Good fighter, but nothing about him really suggests greatness, be it on resume or on ability. But I appreciate that he was good for the sport in the UK and did much to keep interest in it alive when it was going through a pretty rough patch.