british 2 weight world champs how many have there been ?

He beat who would fight him at Light Welter (Hatton ducked him). From 2006-2008 who else was there for him to be at Welter, apart from MArgarito.

Dont mention Mayweather who was off doing his money thing.

 

I think you will find Mayweather wanted the Hatton and Cotto fights while at 140lbs but Arum didnt want it.

The only person Hatton ducked was Witter FACT.

 

The fact that Hatton was true world champion is a fact. Tszyu became THE MAN when he beat Judah, and Hatton beat Tszyu. In shorthand, your humble opinion sucks.

 

He was "the man" post Judah eventhough the other organizations were stripping his belts because he wasn't fighting?

 

Of course Hatton was lineal champ and "the man" at 140 from 2005 onwards, thats beyond debate. He beat Zoo who was the previous champ, not just "on paper" but in actual fact.

Who Cotto did or didn't beat in WBO title defences is irrelevent, he was never lineal or "the man" at 140, he was just a beltholder. Like Hatton was at 147 when he beat Collazo.

I know boxing forums are about debate but you are just plain wrong on this. Don't take this the wrong way but do you know how these things work in boxing?

BTW whats "questionable" about Sharmba Mitchell and Leija as title defences for Zoo? Are they worse than Pinto, N'Dou and Sosa than Cotto was fighting around the samer time (not that that is relevant to Hattons claim of a genuine title).

 

I know how they work, and we are talking about belts and paper champions. Well in 2005 Tzsyu was still just lineal champ on paper. Mainly because he never fought anyone. Same should happen to Hopkins at Lightheavyweight, who considers him still the "linear" champ?

 

No, you don't understand. "Paper lineal" champ? Jeez, you want Cotto to be lineal champ so bad that you've invented your own system of how boxing champions are made.

(BTW no one considers Hopkins lineal at Light heavy because he lost to Calzaghe)

 

No one metioned the best of the lot, Ruby Robert, yet?

 

C'Mon Tbooze, give us some credit. he's had a few mentions...

 

LOL, I did not realise there was five pages, I just went down the first!

 

Yeah, if someone is recognized as a "linear champ" and they fight 3 nobodies in 3 years there is no other word for it.

 

Tackie, Leija and Mitchell were all ranked in the top 10 by Ring magazine and Mitchell was in fact rated ahead of Cotto at the time.

 

You overestimate Cotto's opposition because you want to hype him up. Of those only Corley was a The Ring Top 10 rated JWW when Cotto fought him. He was the No.8 rated in the division. Not that he looked great in beating them. Corley and Torres hurt him badly. Malignaggi gave him a close competitive fight (compare Hatton-Malignaggi). He also barely beat N'dou and was on his bike for long periods in that fight.

For example, Ricardo Torres was a decent fighter and later won a controversial fight for the vacant WBO belt against Arnaoutis but you probably think he was better than he actually was. Here you go...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n6O62BKDzc[/ame]

 

Tszyu was more or less 'the man' at 140 lbs when Hatton beat him. It's certainly questionable whether Hatton would have beaten Cotto (I reckon it would've been a near 50-50 fight personally) and could well be argued that Cotto fought better opposition than both Tszyu and Hatton did during 2004-2006. But in general terms Hatton was thought of as 'the champion' at light welterweight at this time.

I suppose it's yet another case of recent times where the best two haven't fought each other for whatever reasons, mainly because it's easier for them to fight other guys and each make money pretending to be the true number one defending their titles on either side of the atlantic. The past 15-20 years have been near impossible to tell who the real champions because so many fake champions have been hailed as kings of their division and it's only getting worse today. Fans and the media need to stand up and stop paying attention to pretend belt holders so the best fights happen more often.