Is Hatton HOF worthy right now?

Boxing has a liberal Hall of fame, and popularity of the fighter matters in the selection process.

I think Hatton did just enough to get in on merit.

 

For me there's a big difference between HOF and ATG.

Hatton - HOF - yes
Hatton - ATG - no

But on the second point he'll go down as one of the UK's finest ever boxers so from a domestic point of view, yes he is an ATG but not on world level.

 

he should only be allowed in to clean the pictureframes of all the great fighters in there.

even a dodgy entry like Gatti can be justified in a sense as he was exciting as ****....Hatton on the other hand is a boring grappler and hugger who has handpicked his way thorugh his whole career. If you let Hatton in then the floodgates must really open. No way.

 

by one of the UK's finest do you mean top 10? I hope not. Top 30 is pushing his luck.

 

What exactly makes you HOF worthy?
Fame?

 

Yes I do mean top ten; in no particular order

Lennox Lewis, Ted Lewis, Jimmy Wilde, Joe Calzaghe, Randy Turpin, Jack Berg, Ken Buchanen, Ricky Hatton, John Conteh and Howard Winstone would probably make up my top ten.

If you're counting McGuigan (which I'm not cos he's Irish) then I'd probably drop Conteh

 

Hatton would probably be pushing top 5 in the British all time rankings.

Only Lennox Lewis, Ted Lewis and Jimmy Wilde are definitely in front of him - the rest is a matter of opinion.

I would put Hatton about 8 - as Sky Sports did.

 

Id rather see someone throw everything into it like a warrior and go out on their sword rather plod along like Kessler did who was obviosly losing by a country mile.

Floyds in a different league from Calzaghe anyway you can't compair the two.

 

He definately would not be in the HOF if it where my choice, unfortunately with todays standards he'll more than likely make it in once he retires. To be honest he doesn't posses the resume or the H2H ability to put along side the likes of true ATG's. Looking at his resume it's very lacklustre, with his only big win being over an old Tszyu (Still a very good win though). The rest of his opponents consist of British/European level figthers along with some decent contenders (Collazo/Urango/Maussa/faded Castillo). You must also take into account many of these performances whre lackluster.

In my view, a HOF fighter must have the ability to compete/defeat fellow great fighters in or around his weight class. Now honestly, who could see Hatton competing with the likes of Pryor, Locche or even Benitez. There are very few, if any, great LWW's I'd favour Hatton over (Except obviously a faded Tszyu, who he holds a big styles advantage over).

To put it simply, Hatton isn't good enough in my view to be elected into the HOF.

 

If you take the top 20 LWW's from Boxrec, you have........

1 Nicolino Locche
2 Julio Cesar Chavez
3 Antonio Cervantes
4 Kostya Tszyu
5 Bruno Arcari
6 Aaron Pryor
7 Carlos Hernandez
8 Eddie Perkins
9 Duilio Loi
10 Juan Martin Coggi
11 Hector Camacho
12 Roger Mayweather
13 Louis Kaplan
14 Meldrick Taylor
15 Saensak Muangsurin
16 Frankie Randall
17 Willie Joyce
18 Len Davies
19 Hector Thompson
20 Joao Henrique

Quite a few of these are from too distant an era to even bother comparing, but I would say he beats at least five of those - Tszyu, Mayweather, Camacho (possibly) and a few others.

 

Losing by a country mile???

LOOOOOOL

Kessler won the first 4 rounds and round 12.

How many rounds did Hattin win when he stepped up?

Kessler gave (in Calzaghe's own words) Joe the toughest fight of his life.

Do you think Hatton gave Mayweahter the toughest fight of his life?

:rofl

 

Kessler won the first four and the last, as you rightly pointed out.

As far as Hatton goes, I would have given him the first and fifth definitely, and probably a share of the second and perhaps the sixth. The rest went to Floyd, with the 8th being a 10-8 round.

The point deduction was the critical moment, had this not happened, Ricky would have not lost his head and would have certainly heard the final bell - and lost probably 116-112, or perhaps 117-111.

He gave Mayweather a pretty tough examination for a few rounds but was not in control of the fight like Kessler was against Calzaghe.

 

Doesn't get more balanced than that, feller. Only thing you said that was more oppinion than fact is that you don't think Hatton would have gotten KTFO. Maybe you are right. Hard to know as we also don't know what Mayweather would have done. Mayweather lost plenty of the first half to Judah etc. too but he usually turns up the heat more and more.

 

nope

 

There was no way in the world he would have been KTFO - because even up until he hit the ringpost he looked strong, albeit he was chasing Floyd around the ring and leaving himself open etc.

The check hook would have dropped him - but if you consider that he got hit one way, then was sent the other, I was surprised he beat the ten count in truth.

Floyd would have had him anyway, as I have said 116-112. With a different referee you could say 115-113. I would stick the smart money on Floyd being able to adapt. Ricky isn't bad at welter at all - people get sucked into thinking that because he lost to Floyd (P4P No.1) and struggled against Collazo (114-112 Hatton on my card) though he is much better at ten stone.