he takes bums to being good fighters, Mathew Hatton was getting destroyed by domestic fighters until shannon took over him. Hatton went 12 witt Alvarez and Brook after Shannon improved him.
no trainer could help Hatton. his first defence is still his face, predictable head movement, still lunges in..... should have stayed retired even though I'm a fan.
Graham was not a world class trainer. And the pretense that he would have been able to help Hatton is as ridiculous as the fans who expected Kevin Rooney to be able to help Mike in his comeback trail. Graham was perfect at conditioning Ricky for the intensity he fought at. Thats the sum total of it. Ricky was a simple cum forward swarming slugger with a style that simply does not and did not have longevity. You cannot expect to fight that way for over a decade and not expect wear and tear. Look at what happened to Macklin when he tried to adopt a similar style? He was carried out of the ring on a stretcher. The reality is Ricky was ALWAYS a B- fighter. His defense was porous and he was easy to hit. In his entire career nothing has changed. He did exceptionally well considering his stark limitations which were disguised by the opposition he carefully picked and choose on his way to the top. He had much smoke blown up his ass primarily by his fans and his followers which led him to believe his own delusion. I mean this is a guy who considered himself a world champion when he held the WBU belt and is on record as saying so. Ricky came back for the wrong reasons. His retired now. Hopefully this time it stays that way.
Hatton was fooling himself. When Paulie won a title Hatton thought it was his path back. When you are gone that long after a brutal KO the fire has gone out. Rickey felt some nostalgia and mistook it for an ember that could be flamed back into passion. It may have worked out better if he had been a little wiser choosing his path back.
It was always about the path of least resistance for Ricky. Which was half his problem. Paulie can't crack an egg and yet he's a world titlist. Thus he was an easy target one who Ricky had already beaten for a belt. As i mentioned on another thread if Ricky was humble enough he would have chosen his opponents more wisely. But if Ricky had fought down a level he still would have been criticized. The reality is Ricky knows his level. But his fans do not. Floyd came back vs Marquez and utterly dominated him. Ricky came back against a guy a semi unknown and lost via KO. This speaks volumes as to the levels each man has fought at. One thing is certain Ricky is a fighter who loves to fight. But his level was always the fringes of world class as merely a title holder. His fans of course will always argue otherwise but when you look at the opponents Ricky beat for his belts and the manner of the wins its abundantly clear what his level is/was.