Two of my favourite fighters of recent times, on paper I think they're fairly evenly matched. Both I think it's probably fair to say very good fighters who both fell short of ATG status. You can say Maidana gave Mayweather more problems than Ricky but Joe Cortez didn't help Hatton at all, whereas Mayweather looked towards the ref v Maidana for help and never got any. Not saying Hatton would have won but he was definitely frustrated in that fight, I don't think he gets KO'd in the same manner if he'd been allowed to fight his fight put it that way, he was moving up in weight and still gave a good account of himself. I think If you have the same unbiased referee they both give Mayweather a similar amount of problems and both last the distance. Other than the Mayweather fights they both beat a similar pedigree of opponents, both had an offensively minded style. We know Maidana nearly lost on body punches v Khan, and Hatton was an expert body puncher, so he could have given Maidana problems there. They were both physically strong for the weight and had good chins, they were really only beaten by the best in their primes. I think Hatton at his best would also have roughed Broner up and beaten him. Maidana had an unorthodox style and disguised his punches well. So who wins this one?
I have a reputation for picking against Hatton, but not here. He'd beat Maidana up... maybe even stop him to the body.
At 140 I think Hatton mugs him. At 147 it might be different if we have the reborn version of Maidana who was coached by Robert Garcia up against weltwerweight Hatton, the version who allegedly binged on fried takeout after the weigh-in against Collazo, and who fought like it the next night.
