"Elite" to me means being able to put in the kind of level of performance that would have made you competitive against the very best fighters ever at that weight, on their best night. It means you could have given them a fight. It has nothing to do with Top 100 or whatever. What if 100 boxers better than Duran are born tomorrow. Does Duran stop being an ATG because he doesn't make it in the Top 100 anymore? To answer your question, in my view, Ricky wasn't true elite, although on his best night, he was borderline elite...better than a top world class fighter.
There is no true one definition of what is "elite" -that is why I gave it a top 100 tag. People can argue all day about what is "elite", I nailed it to a post. Is Hatton a top 100 ATG fighter?
Maybe, but you need an 'elite' win to be amongst the absolute greats. Hatton maybe has one against Tszyu but that's very subjective. Hatton is certainly not amongst the greatest 100 boxers of all time. He is a British boxing great though.
Not even close. His career prior to Tszyu (the WBU stuff) is just average. Vilches, Tackie and co were all just C grade fighters. So take a look at what he did since then. Tszyu - Good Win (whether or not he was past his peak someone had to do the job so Hatton gets credit for it) Maussa - Average Win (Maussa won't be remembered for very long) Collazo - Above Average Win (close and controversial points decision but against a decent operator) Urango - Above Average Win (starting to look better with the passage of time. Urango looks like a good fighter in the division now) Jose Luis Castillo - Good Win (comprehensive victory over a fighter that will be long remembered, although, again he was past his prime but you still have to give Hatton the credit) Mayweather - Defeat (Hatton was never in the fight in his first step up to elite level) Lazcano - Average Win (Lazcano is a fringe world fighter and Hatton was badly buzzed a couple of times in a wide, but unconvincing, points win) Malinaggi - Above Average Win (did a job on a feather fisted fighter who was made for him. Easy pickings IMO but he still had to get it done) Pacquaio - Defeat (brutal, nasty, shocking, whatever you want to call it. second step up to the elite level ends in a savage KO) There is no ****ing way in the world that should qualify anyone for top 100 ATG status. 9 top level fights. 7 (3kos)-2(2kos). He had a very good and solid career. Nothing to be ashamed of but when you scrutinise his career he doesn't have many big wins (in terms of ATG level) on there. He ****ed about too much with WBU defences when he should have been expanding his repetoire.
Well, the reason I said it was bad logic was because according to you, if you got beaten by an elite fighter, you couldn't be elite....so the underlined statement doesn't hold either, which is ridiculous... Clearly, you can be elite whilst beating elite fighters and getting beaten by other elite fighters... ...I agree with everything else you said, though...except for the not top 100 bit...(I don't know about that; am no historian). But would you not agree he was better on his best night than a top world class level fighter?
World Class just short of being Elite. Hatton ruled the Light Welterweight division for 4 and an half years, He also won a Title Albeit controversially at Welterweight, That would make him pretty close to an Elite fighter in my book, but he is faced two prime Elite fighters in his career and come up short on both occasions so that put's his career into perspective. Hatton should hang them up now as he is on the decline, he won't make the Top 100, but he could make the Hall of Fame based on his dominance of the 140 Division.
How does a fighter become 'elite' if he doesn't beat fellow 'elite' fighters? It's all very subjective to me. If you take away a fighters top wins then drops from an 'elite' fighter to a very good fighter. You need those wins at the very top level to be regarded as an ATG. Obviously you're not going to win every fight at 'elite' level but you need a win or two.
