Did Ricky Hatton ever crack the ring mag`s top 10 P4P fighters?

One bad fight? He clearly lost to Collazo and looked mighty poor against Lazcano and Senchenko.

 

Had to feel for Ricky when he claimed he was beating Pacquaio “by a country mile”. That’s ill.

 

“I have a chance to prove what I believe and that is that I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter walking the face of the planet,”

No, Ricky

 

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I think Hatton became more reckless, going into and after the Kostya Tszyu fight. Much of this was disguised, while he was able to get his head into the chest of an opponent and fight at short-range.

A less reckless Hatton was sharper and tighter in his punching. He would still throw committed left hands, but with speed and then recover his defensive positioning very rapidly. He also had a solid set of whiskers and all-round punch resistance. His physical, aggressive style demanded it.

The recklessness was probably caused by a combination of factors. It showed up against Maussa because Maussa was an awkwardly long guy, who Hatton had trouble reaching and so, to some extent, the lunging left-hook, which he nailed Maussa with eventually, was justified - even if it was a risky punch.

It became riskier as he grew tired and his work became ragged. Post-Tszyu he was tiring earlier and, to my mind, was more or less an 8-round fighter by then. I think he was slowing up too and his punch resistance was beginning to falter.

By the time the Lazcano fight came along, I would say Hatton was just about shot. Yes, he had a good outing against Malignaggi, following this, but Malignaggi had little with which to deter Hatton, even with a weakened punch resistance and, to a greater extent, I think, Malignaggi capitulated to Hatton and let him have his way.

To me, the Malignaggi bout was like another 'image rebuild' fight for Hatton (a bit like the Castillo fight had been). Either way, it kept him as the LWW Ring Champion and set up another big payday against Pacquiao. If Hatton wasn't shot before that, then Pacquiao shot him.

 

I think he was from around the Collazo fight (which he arguably was lucky to get the nod in) until the Floyd loss. He definitely wasn't heading into the upset over Tszyu (at it was then considered) but that vaulted him up nearly if not all the way in.