ricky hatton vs brandon rios

Hatton on points in a great fight. He'd likely need to have his boxing head on to do it convincingly though.

 

Yeah, if he was out to use his abilities in an outside fight, which I know he didn't really like doing, and wasn't his nature at all, it would be his fight to lose, tough as it might be. But it would be the only prudent choice against someone like Rios who seems to enjoy being battered let alone bothered by it and is still huge for 140, despite having come up from 135.

 

The Ricky of Tackie would do.

 

I'm trying to work "ticky-tacky" into that, Flea, but I'm struggling today.

 

Hatton's just a better fighter than Rios with more dimensions. Rios wont bring anything that Hatton hasn't seen before, he's a good pressure fighter, with fairly quick hands, good power and a granite chin, but Abril and and Rios exposed a lot of his flaws. Give him some movement, pick your shots, avoid a brawl and you'll give him loads of trouble. I dont really rate Rios much higher than id rate Urango, and Hatton showed he can box when he meets a strong opponent that he can't break down on the inside. Granted there may be a few hariy moments for Hatton, and he will have to go toe to toe with Rios at times, but he's got the chin, inside work and all round ability to both box and brawl. Cant see Rios winning more than three rounds tbh.

 

Very good post SOK my only problem with Ricky's two dimensions being that he rarely blended them well in a fight. He either came out with a boxing or mauling mindset and stuck to it rigidly over the 10/12.

But yes I don't rate Rios much higher than Urango, despite being more impressed with Rios>Acosta then Urango-Ngdoujo the fact Brandon was that much bigger sours the win for me.

A good example of a very good same day lightweight being hammered by a modern day weight cutter :-(

 

If Ricky exchanges too much, which he probably would do, then Rios's better shorter punches would do more damage. Ricky needs to box in and out or use his wrestling rough house tactics to get the better of it.

Tackie was ****

His wrestling hooking and holding would be his defensive tactic. He could suffocate Rios and throw him off balance with his superior strength I suppose.

Rios is far better than the slow as mollases wide punching Urango. The only thing Urango has going for him is he probably has the most impressive physique in 140lb history

 

Urango was strong and hit hard and before Bailey clocked him looked unbreakable. Rios has more finesse but is that the only thing that matters? Let's not act like he's leagues above, now he's fighting around his own weight he isn't the decimator he was for, um two fights at 135 before needing to put the rounds in against John Murray of all people.

Tackie was a solid journeyman but you knew I was referring to Hatton's approach. I would've said Paulie but I think anyone with a more solid dig would've thrown Ricky off his rythym at that point, that fight masked a lot of his vulnerabilities. Take him one fight before (Lazcano) or one after (Pacquiao) and I think Rios beats both those versions of Ricky. So he'd likely beat Paulie version too.

 

I think Hatton's footwork would win him this fight, personally.

He'd have some pretty rough moments, especially on the inside where I'm not convinced he was ever really all that at the higher level.

Ricky would probably look to establish the jab and gradually work the body, where I think Rios can be broken down.

I'm reluctant to put too much emphasis on his struggles with Murray, given that he was clearly as flat as a pancake at 135, but Hatton at anything like his best did everything way better.

Harder puncher, better defence, better at countering, better chin, footwork off the chart.

 

Very good post BB.

 

I remember Urango getting a gift against some Jewish Aussie boxer. Who did he actually beat that was any good? Ngoudjo was pretty decent he fought (robbed against Malignaggi and Castillo I thought), and he destroyed Vilches who was a journeyman, and Bailey I suppose.

Rios didn't look good against Murray but I think he was drained for that one. Rios looked like he should have pushed on with his career but he hasn't really

Pity because I was hoping for Rios-Mattysse, although I suppose the Golden Boy Arum feud would stop that anyway

 

No way does Hatton hit harder to the head than Rios and have we seriously started championing Hatton's defensive skills now

His footwork is great though and he feints well, the pace he does everything at is fantastic.

Still though this would be his 4th or 3rd best opponent of his career.

 

I was comparing Hatton to Murray :good

 

Yeah I felt Ngoudjo beat Castillo and Paulie.