Ricky Hatton

I dont think hatton would ever have been able to fight succesfully till his late 30,s regardless of how he treated his body. He pretty much had a young mans style that relied on a relentless workrate for success. That slips as you age regardless. And arms we,re too short to be an effective boxer at the top level. Was always gonna need to go up to 147 eventually and didnt have the length etc for it.

I actually think although it was less than ideal...how he went about things outside his training camp. He worked so hard in the gym...he kind of got away with it. Cut his career short...but we pretty much seen the best of him. The logical thing is he should have been learning new skills etc instead of solely concentrating on shifting the weight. But hatton with more skill and less relentlessness would have probably been to his downfall anyway. He was never gonna outskill the higher level guys. He was never the most skilled boxer and even if he was them short arms we,rent gonna do him any favours. He was kind of forced to fight in that style. But was one of the very best at it. Just completely worked guys over. Always feel when their comparing hatton to most other guys their comparing apples to oranges a bit. Because a guys slicker than him it doesnt mean their better. These guys probably couldnt work an opponent over like hatton could. Everytime i watched him fight coming through always left thinking...wouldnt fancy being in the ring with him. Never gave you a minute to breath...also very very good at working people over. I still think the short arms killed him at the top level more than the outside the gym antics.

 

Thing is he was effective at top level minus his last outing he lost to two ATG
.

 

There's no doubt he should have stepped up sooner than he did. Defending the WBU belt 15 times under Frank Warren held him back and more than likely meant his prime years were wasted. His lifestyle caught up with him in the end.

 

Most of it has been said in the thread. I thought he was exciting & untypically British in his in-fighting skills. But he was moved along slow & beat post peak guys or guys from weight class down mostly. Even if he was past his peak in his two major losses, KT was past his best too when Hatton won & that was easily one of his best wins.

Good fighter, great to watch but I always preferred Calzaghe as he was more rounded. Hatton had great in-fighting, work rate, endurance, some speed but was easy to hit & hit flush. Funnily enough as in-fighting seems to be evaporating, I'd fancy Hatton VS most current 140's (Crawford 147) Imam, Reed etc would get outworked & smothered. No punchers in current bunch to slow him down & certainly no Floyd's either.

 

Hatton was good,but some of his opponents,were either past it,too old,or just opponents with already losses on their record and were quite frankly average.When Ricky had his chances,Mayweather and Pacquiao,to legitimately claim he is the no1 in the world,he got outclassed and lost badly.He wasnt a very skilled boxer,but more of a skilled brawler.To call him a British Great is very suprising,if he was American i doubt he'd make the top 200 or German top 50.Ricky though did give entertainment and was a very exciting fighter to watch,class fella aswell,and hopefully still plays a part in boxing today,weather that's promoting,training,i think he can be a very useful trainer,at teaching young british boxers how to fight inside effectively,as that was one of his best skills,and a lot of our UK boxers are not as skilled at body attacks and fighting in the inside like Ricky was.

 

Ricky is a trainer, his fighter ‘Zhakiyanov‘ from Kazakhstan, is a world champion at bantamweight. He also has his own boxing promotions company representing the likes of Lucas Browne, Ryan Burnett and Adam Etches.

 

Good post mate. I still think it was more about what he done to the opponents that got him the name. He fought some good fighters than knew their way about a ring. A good few guys that only lost to the best but your right in saying a lot we,re past there very best etc. But he basically brutalised them in good fashion. Was clear to see he was ready to move up a level way before they did move him up that level. People look back on his record but he would have beat better guys than he did. He beat them mostly with ease and bashed them up badly in the process. The cv sometimes only tells half a story. He was actually better than his cv leads you to believe imo. Just fought the same level for too long. Think it was proven in his tyszu fight that he,d been ready for a while.

People discredit the tyszu fight but tyszu wasnt far removed from his best if at all for me. He never relied on his speed or athletism anyway. He basically fought the same way from his first fight to his last...even watching him he wasnt any better for the judah fight than he was against hatton imo.

Mayweather was just a bridge too far. But mayweathers been a one off tbf. Plus in rickys defence it was up at 147...wasnt ever gonna be his weightclass. Watched the fight the other day...still say joe cortez put on one of the worst displays for that fight i ve seen. Its allright everyone saying he wouldnt have won. But lets get it right...hatton wasnt aloud to fight inside at all...till he,d been bashed up enough anyway. People should re watch that fight. Its actually worse than i remembered. Cortez does more wrestling that hatton.

The whole point of the fight was the two clashes of styles. One guy wasnt aloud to use their style. Cheated the fans regardless of who you we,re supporting imo.

 

Thaxton was not with ease nor magee
Add lazcano to that
Careful matchmaking is an art form in its self
Hence no witter fight

 

We could probably go through anybodies record and find guys that had tricky fights along the way mate. Thaxton and mghee we,re kind of before he kicked on. They we,re his first fights where he was matched harder than the usual average joes...it was after them two frank kept him at the same level for ages when he was crying out to kick on. He pretty much was brutalising them.

Still to this day dont understand the so called lacazano bad performance that he always talks about. It finished 120 to 110 in a 12 round fight. He won pretty much every round and pretty sure he battered him for most of it. Lacazano was actually a very good fighter...he was class. But he was a weight class below hatton tbf. People put it down as a bad performance to this day but i m pretty sure it was actually a good performance. But by that point ricky thought he was a superstar so losing a couple of rounds to a world champion a weight class lower was a disaster. It was all down to getting hurt by him in one of the rounds. They done the usual...hatton favouritism. Where i m pretty sure the ref gave ricky time to recover to tie his laces or something like that. It was a good performance but he got caught.

Its hard to complain about how ricky was treated by cortez/mayweather tbf...because he did benefit from the same sort of things throughout his career.

You just felt tho...at the very top level when fans are paying to watch...let the guys impose their styles. No point making the fight in the first place if ones not allowed to use his.

Could put a long list of misdemeanors that favoured hatton throughout his career with warren/micky vann etc. But still dont think any we,re as bad as not letting him fight his style whatsoever in that mayweather fight. Cortez was actually wrestling to make sure their was no infighting. The same guy that let hopkins v calzaghe infight all night long.

 

Like vann allowed hatton to get away with too much wrestling etc. But guys could always have stopped him coming in with a number of different things. Pushed him back etc. Used their feet. Movement. Still had a number of options.

Or lacazano could have finished him off after hatton was giving time to recover. Etc.

Or anyone of the list of adantages hatton got. The other guy at least still had a chance.

But hatton was forced to fight pretty much an all time great on the outside with his little t rex arms. Its not really just giving the other guy the advantage. Its pretty much just making sure he wins the fight.

 

Good boxer not a great one I thought Witter would have beaten him back in the day that would have been a huge UK fight

 

I think going up to WW put the brakes on his career, he couldn't out hustle the bigger guys like he could at LWW.

 

I'm pretty sure he trained Kiryl Relikh as well, who isn't a bad fighter at all

 

He's a solid fighter, I had him winning against Burns and Raches Barthelemy.

 

I thought he beat Burns too but seem to be in the slight minority there. Heard he was unlucky against Rances. He'll get another shot at a decent level I'm sure