A quote i keep hearing from Hatton

I think the style that is necessary to win amateur bouts has an impact - because a lot of young fighters now lunge into their punches in the act of scoring a point rather than using the jab to form an opening for their combinations.

The great defensive fighters of this era, like Mayweather, Hopkins et al are/will soon be gone - the best form of defence these days seems to come from the taller guys, like the Klitschkos who can use a strong jab (almost a straight left in reality) to keep an opponent at bay.

The judging of fights as well must have something to do with it. A fighter who never had favour with the judges was Pernell Whitaker. Most of his close fights went against him, Chavez, DLH etc - trainers probably wonder what's the point of teaching the classic art of defence when you are going to be ripped off.

Furthermore, the mainstream public who only have a passing interest will look at a guy and see what % of KO's he has before deciding to tune in or not. This is without any knowledge of the game, i.e. a 27 (15) - 2 (1) fighter can be better than a 32 (29) - 0 (0) one, but they see the opposite. In order for the fighters to make decent money, they have to have a style which puts bums on seats (see Ricky Hatton vs say Herol Graham).

 

I suppose people fail to see the difference between negative and cautious.

Floyd and Lennox Lewis are the classic examples of cautious, whilst guys like Wlad Klitschko and Junior Witter are what I would call negative fighters - despite them having good offensive skills.

Would you have said the Hatton fight was his best performance - or was Corrales better?

 

I think the win over Gatti is way overrated to be honest.

I suppose it did prove that he can take constant pressure - even when getting a pasting Hatton still kept coming forward, which I don't think Floyd or his trainer expected.

They were expecting a bit of rough for a couple of rounds followed by a schooling for a couple more and a mid round KO. What they got was five close (ish) sessions and a masterclass for the next five - something which I didn't see coming (the KO).

 

Not for me. Loved the Corrales performance, sublime. The short left that resulted in one fo the knockdowns was awesome.
Need to re-watch Hatton Mayweather though, never have since seeing the fight live. Scared it'll spoil the memories.

 

I think Hatton was a better fighter than Corrales though - Ricky doesn't take punches as well at 147, but I don't think that affects what he inflicts on his opponents.

He has fought twice at 147, once in shape and once out - and is 1-1. He was in great nick for the Floyd fight, as good as he has ever been - but simply came up against a style he could not fathom properly.

He is better at welterweight than people give him credit for, and he (amongst others) need to stop using it as an excuse for losing.

 

I wouldn't disagree with you there, but what I would say is that Corrales was a slight betting favourite for that fight, something that you could not say about Hatton going in. Placing it in its time I would say that the Corrales win was a bigger and better one than the Hatton one.

I also think his win and performance against Philip N'Dou is very underated.

 

I suppose in hindsight it is daft that Corrales was a betting favourite against Mayweather.

But I suppose at the time Floyd hadn't beaten a taller guy - so I can see where it came from to a degree.

Maybe with the fact that Mayweather won every second of every round plus 5 knockdowns and it is easy to say that one.

 

No he wasn't. http://www.boxing-monthly.co.uk/content/0103/two.htm

 

Odds change in the lead up to a fight; a lot of late money on Mayweather could have swung the odds around.

Corrales was deffo favourite at one point. Its something that sticks in the mind, because Mayweather has been favourite for every other fight he has been in, and usually a big favourite at that.

 

I seem to remember him and Genaro Hernandez started as pick-em as well before swinging either way a couple of times due to the money being laid. I'm sure with the English bookies Mayweather opened at 7-5 on and stuck there till fight time. If I was a betting man though I may have had some money on him if I could have found odds against as I was confident he;d beat Chico even though I hated the c*nt at that point!

 

Despite the height disadvantage Mayweather was a stylistic nightmare for Corrales. 7-5 on, I think I still should have had a punt.

I wonder what odds Castillo was for his first fight with Mayweather; that is the only fight that I think Mayweather could have conceivably lost.

 

Excellent post.

Most of the people picking against Hatton are looking for pluses for why Malignaggi will beat him whilst obviously overlooking all the negatives.

Like for instance Malignaggi is too fast and slick defensivly for Hatton, yet he struggled like **** and was hit ALOT against an unproven fighter like Ngodju (sp) and basically a very tough journey man in Ndou.

Despite what alot of people who dont support Hatton say they cannot deny that Hatton is a couple of divisions above the two fighters who Malignaggi has last faced.