Nothing to do with the point of your post but you are underrating Vince Phillips a good bit. The majority of his losses came after he was about 36 and he was talented enough to be somewhat competitive until almost 44 (which is no small feat). He was only stopped three times in his career. One was a from a bad cut (he had some trouble with cuts in his career) in seven rounds against Jones (who was a decent southpaw fighter who fought for the title against Rosario (KOd by in 6) and Whitaker (12 dec for Pernell) and even got a stoppage of an ancient Julian Jackson in his very last fight), the next was against a tremendous Quartey in the third and he got up off the canvas but the ref rightfully stepped in (this fight was in St. Maarten and Vince threw over a 100 punches in the first round), and the last you'll recall was the Millet fight when Vince was just nearing 36 years of age. He was 35-3 when he fought Tsyzu and had moved down from welterweight. His other loss pre-Tsyzu was a split decision to Ellis (who was an Olympian). Vince was a pretty damn good fighter who had some out-of-ring personal issues but when he was right he was quality.
Of course not. He was a come forward brawler who had big balls and was willing to have a go (probably why so many Brits took to him). He NEVER had that much talent and once his chin began to go his previous strength advantage disappeared too, no doubt hastened by his ridiculous habit of drinking and eating too much between fights. As a Brit I desperately hoped Hatton would add some skill to his physical grappling style of fighting but to be honest he never seemed capable of doing that. He fought two top class fighters in their prime and to be honest he was embarassed by both. The wins against decent opposition that he had showed that he was a strong guy and not the bum that some anti hatton fans would have you believe but never is he or has he been an ELITE fighter.
Yes vince was a good fighter but he was some way off the hof I know all about his fondnessv with party powder etc but he was capable at world class, that's it!!!
