I always forget about this I'll fated return vs senchenko. I actually got a bit hyped over it and thought Hatton would have enough to win and then win another title in the paulie rematch. Jesus
Never got round to watching it. I think I had to listen on the radio and they seemed to be under the impression that he was winning for the first 6 or 7 then ran out of steam. Is this accurate or what exactly happened?
If one thing is for certain with age, your body will start to let you down. With Hayes comeback it was all about money, he knew he was broken but I genuinely think Hatton thought he could still fight but ultimately he couldn't and you could tell by his emotion after the stoppage that he was heart broken that he was no longer able.
yeah I remember that, it seemed to be a matter of delusion on Hatton's part. He was messed up by the pacquiao loss thats for sure and you cant blame him, he seemed fired up like he wanted some kind of redemption but he was getting hurt often and was on his way to a nasty KO, it kind of ended in a merciful way for him really. As said, I dont think it was entirely about money, Hatton was clearly upset by the hand of reality slapping him in the face.
Years of binge eating + alcohol consumption + coke snorting + a significant absence out of the ring + wrong side of 30 = being found out in the ring. It was just not there and a modest opponent started walking through his punches then he ran out of steam. Although he was a bit younger on his comeback - Mr Tyson Fury done all of the above and incredibly made a successful comeback when most of us thought there was no way back. The more I think about the Fury comeback it really is an incredible achievement.
I was thinking about this earlier, the difference for Hatton was that he was, as you mention, older and cutting the weight in such a strict way, as Hatton had to do to make weight, takes far more toll on your body than if you're a heavyweight just having to get into better condition. Everything counts in large amounts when you live how Hatton did and have to shed the weight. Just imagine if Fury had to get down to say 17 stone for the Wider fight, he'd have been f**ked. It's astonishing what Hatton achieved considering the way he lived, I often wonder what he could have done if he'd have lived the life of a pro boxer day to day during his peak years. I say this a lot but he was better than 99.9% of boxers in his weight division of his era, a little more fie tuning ie. living a more focused lifestyle may have been a leveller, we'll never know, it could have messed him up too I suppose.
Having too many pointless fights before he hit World Level did not help either as the body can only take a limited number of training camps. Hatton could have quite easily retired an unbeaten legend but I do admire him for chasing the elite fights with Money and Pac even though he fell short. Yes the weight limit and age is the difference between him and Fury with the comebacks. He needed another 10% in those elite fights and that is where the lifestyle caught up with him - great career and time for boxing fans.
Hatton was silly fighting Senchenko. I know Senchenko isn't great but Hatton had a Tyson Fury blow out. He should've came back and fought a Pianetta lets say. Senchenko was bordering on world level. I'm not saying Hatton could've had a sucessful comeback. But I think he could've knocked a few bums over and retired on a decent performance v someone like Senchenko.
I feared the worst when I saw the title of this thread and thought there'd be people mocking Hatton but it's nice to read the comments in here. He was never my favourite stylistically but I always admired the man and what he did for British boxing. I don't really include the comeback fight on his record, in my eyes he only lost to the two best fighters of his generation and he gave Mayweather a real good go before coming up short, it took a lot out of him and Manny finished off what was left.
was part of Hatton's delusion though, he probably thought he would get through Senchenko pretty easy. The man had an ego and too much pride to go the bum of the month route.