Diaz was a lightweight, and not hard punching. For the record, I had him winning the first match. Paulie whinging is all that caused the "controversy". The loss to JMM took a lot out of Juan, so I think it was a case of Paulie getting a smaller man at the right time.
The difference between Hatton and Diaz was that Hatton had the footwork to close the distance of the fight. Thats what I meant by Paulie not having the legs or the punch to stop a fighter like Hatton doing what he wanted.
So where does the Paulie win rate on Ricks record? It seems to be getting lower and lower based on how he performed in the future rather than what he did in the fight itself!
Dunno. Paulie is a good win, one of Hattons best but its just that, to me, I just couldn't see him losing that fight except on an unlucky cut. Guess it depends whether you rate the standard of the opponent or the difficulty of the fight. I also got confused last night about which Diaz we were talking about...old age!
Getting mixed up with boxers called Diaz is understandable mate. I mean we had 3 of them all holding belts in the lw division a few years back!
Hatton was the man at 140 with fights against- Tszyu- was at the end of his career,inactive prior to the Hatton fight Castillio- not the version that fought coralles/Mayweather/Cassamayor Malignaggi- Solid win but hardly ATG Senchenko- Returned to the ring and looked like ****, horrible fight with the most ironic ending to his career. Shame to see him like that Pacman- Hattons performance was awful, swinging wildly until he had his lights put out. Blamed everyone and everything for the loss Mayweather- Both undefeated at the time, Hatton came up short against the better man. Collazo/Lascano- Not sure which one it was but Hatton was nearly out on his feet against one of these boys Urango- Solid win again Froch never the man of the division with Ward there but has fought- Ward-Lost convincingly against a future ATG Bute- excellent win over undefeated fighter in Bute, lets not forget Froch was underdog. Johnson-Tough operator not sure if he has ever been stopped. decent win over a faded fighter Abraham-again Froch was underdog over the hard hitting German Dirrell-another undefeated fighter, he got the nod but could have gone either way. Taylor- Great fight with an amazing last ditch Knockout Pascal-Undefeated, went on to beat Hopkins and Dawson I would say Hatton is the more skilled fighter of the 2 and will be remembered long after Froch due to his huge fan base and all out fighting style. Froch has a better record now let alone when they are both old and grey. He has literally fought everyone worth fighting, ducked nobody and done it impressively.