Either Judah early-to-mid or Hatton late. Given how terrible Hatton's defense was and given that Ricky was ABYSMAL fighting southpaws, theres a legit possibility Judah could win inside of 6 given his firepower and speed early on. But if he fails to do, I'd expect Judah to fade late and Hatton either wins a decision or late stoppage. Close call. Both guys were vulnerable. I might favor Hatton to edge it at 140, but Judah wins at 147.
Hatton by late round tko. I feel Hatton has come 180° now. He's gone from being one of the most over rated fighters to now being one of the most underated. Hatton was an excellent pressure fighter, yes he was no Chavez or Armstrong and he certainly wouldn't have beaten the very best version of Kostya Tszyu. But the only men to ever beat Hatton were Mayweather and Pacquiao. The Collazo fight was close but that was at WW and Collazo was a very tricky fighter. The best chance of beating Hatton is from the outside and to do that you need to have excellent movement and timing to discourage him. If you fancy your chances in a war stand toe to toe with him by all means. Judah doesn't have the heart for a Hatton fight. He would have moments of success like he always did, but at some point Hatton turns up the heat and forces a stoppage. I see this in my minds eye clear as day.
He might well get rocked to his boots by Judah. But Hatton had the heart to fight through it and overcome adversity.
I think the initial post by @lufcrazy was a good one - but that said, I often find Hatton quite hard to rate in these kind of head-to-heads because of how his career panned out and his lack of those 50:50 kind of fights. He was big business this side of the pond by around 2002, being groomed as the next household name of the sport as Lewis headed towards retirement and as Hamed's star waned a little, and was fed a string of relatively low-risk opponents to keep the wins, knockouts and hype going. Don't forget: the Tszyu fight, despite being his first real world title bout and his 'coming out party', was his 39th professional fight - more than the likes of Hamed or Froch had in their whole careers. Patience had been wearing thin about when he was finally going to tackle a big-name opponent with something properly on the line. He'd been a professional for almost eight years by then. If he was big business before Tszyu, he was huge business afterwards, and having split with Warren after that fight to manage himself and court HBO there was no reason to dabble in those kind of 50:50, tricky fights against the very good, but not great opponents - which is the class Judah would have fallen into. From that point on it was either safe bet against a run-of-the-mill contender or alphabet titlist who was seen to pose little threat, or a mega money fight as an underdog against a pound for pounder in which he had nothing to lose (Mayweather and Pacquiao). He offered all sorts of reasons why a Witter fight wasn't viable or meaningful (while fighting the likes of Maussa, Urango and Lazcano) and, along with Billy Graham, poured cold water all over the idea of a Cotto fight at 140 lb in 2004 / 2005 with the usual "let it marinate, it'll be a bigger fight down the line, the money would be an insult to both fighters at this point" stuff. Why risk a fight in which you could look poor and thus damage you marketability, or worse still possibly even lose, when you can still earn good money fighting safe bets and you have potential 'no-lose' shots at glory against the pound for pound kings? In between Tszyu and Mayweather, the only really risky, prime guy he fought was Collazo, who gave him kittens and almost derailed the gravy train. As such, there is a real lack of Judah-level opponents on Hatton's resume. The way he got absolutely outclassed and taken apart by the two elite fighters he faced, along with the close shave against Collazo, suggest that he would almost certainly have shipped a loss or two somewhere along the line had he faced a few of those guys. Judah's speed, southpaw stance and decent power could very well have proved too much, but then again as others have said, Zab was a front runner who was occasionally found wanting when the going got really tough, and he wasn't the most durable, either. Gun to my head....Hatton just about pulls out a decision - possibly controversial - in a fight where he doesn't look all that good. Judah looks to have the stylistic advantage and shows a slight gulf in class when he gets that engine rolling, but gets outworked, outmuscled and isn't busy enough to convince the judges. Similar to how Hatton beat Collazo, or how Froch beat Dirrell.
Judah has the advantages in power, speed, southpaw angles. Hatton has the advantage in stamina and workrate. Although the 140lb young Judah had better workrate than he did at 147. I'd lean towards a Judah KO because of how bad Hatton did against southpaws (Pacquaio/Collazo) and how he avoided the Witter fight for about a decade. Hatton doesn't do well with southpaws though. Pacquaio obliterated him and Collazo probably deserved the nod and nearly ko'd him IIRC. Judah is a class above Collazo. Hatton also avoided Witter and Corley, Judah back around 02-05. He actually turned down title fights before the Tyszu fight and dumped his British Title when Witter was mandatory Still he might have the workrate to beat any Tyszu, hard to say Judah might cave in but he has the speed, southpaw angles and power to win here. At 140 Judah was much more of a force than 147, where he was a bit small. He looked like a Pernell Whitaker who could punch when he was first on the scene.
I think Judah would look like a million dollars early on but falls apart around the 7th, then Hatton gets himself back into the fight and stops him some time later.
Yet he goes 12 with Mayweather winning 4 of them and Hatton goes life and death with Collazo. Judah showed plenty of stamina against Witter and Corley, he threw aload of leather in that fight. There's no guarantees Hatton gets out of the early rounds either. Hatton fans have a view of him skewed by his usually overmatched opponents, bar Mayweather, Pacquaio, Tyszu
I'm not a fan of Hatton. I wanted Pacquiao, Mayweather and Malignaggi to beat him. I also wanted Witter to get the W if the fight ever came off. The problem here is Judah just isn't good enough to handle the heat. Mayweather adjusted to out box Judah, Hatton would never do that, he'd wear him down and bang him out, or Judah would quit. Witter and Corley are two of the most negative fighters in 140 pound history. He only had to box with them punch for punch. Judah folds against Hatton.
