Roach: Malignaggi was a handpicked opponent

That fight was a mismatch. Paulie is one handed fighter with no power and a suspect defense. Now how the hell is a guy like that supposed to deal with a pressure fighter of Hatton's caliber? Not only that, but he struggled B/C level fighters and his best win was a controversial decsion against Ngoudjo. This fight had mismatch written all over it.

 

Roach is the king of *******s. David diaz is a gatekeeper at best and he even said delahoya couldn't pull the trigger anymore before the dream match.

 

None of this information changes the fact that Paulie was a handpicked opponent.

 

But he was ranked number 2 in the 140, had not lost since miguel cotto and has a habit of out performing his opponents with good skill and speed and quick manouvers which many thought that hatton would struggle to deal with, Hatton struggled with many opponents at welterweight but then people still picked him to beat mayweather, and now there saying it was this big miss match, evreyone says the same thing after they seen the fight

 

Are you honestly going to tell me that you believed that Paulie had a legit shot at beating Hatton?

 

No **** huh :-(

 

Paulies fight against Cotto would have been seen more of a mismatch at the time but there is no disgrace at all in Paulies performance that night against a guy i'm sure you would pick to beat Hatton so why was fighting Hatton such a mismatch? I remember reading on this site before that fight and i would say about 95% of the people on ESB were saying Paulie had too much speed and would "box Hattons head off" we're the words many on this site used. After the fight i don't think i have read one comment where someone has said... 'fair enough, Hatton was faster, outboxed Paulie and was just too strong for him'. Everyone now seems to be one of the few that was saying Hatton would have too much for Paulie :roll:

 

Paulie vs. Cotto was a mismatch as well. Cotto was weight drained and still pummeled Paulie. Hatton is an even worse matchup for Paulie stylistically. Let's not also forget that Paulie has regressed since that Cotto fight. His right hand has gotten worse and he much more reluctant to use it.

That's complete bull****. 95% of the people on this site were not picking Paulie.

A few? There were a ton of people picking Hatton. I'll pull out some of my posts on the fight if want doubt me.

 

Agree. I was going to mentioned the weight driained Cotto. Paulie got famous for just going the twelve rounds with Cotto. Hatton is 100% all 140 King. Mismatch yes. Handpicked yes. Not even an argument. What is the thread about again, oh yea, Roach comment. Diaz was not handpicked. Some posters get caught up in Roach's marketing.

 

Not doubting YOU Reg... don't take it personally... but i remember reading on here and laughing because 2 thirds of the comments were from guys saying Paulie would box Hatton's stationary head off. If you called it right to start with then well done but there were an awful lot of people on here who thought it was far from a mismatch until the day after the fight.

Also i see where people are coming from with Hatton hand picked Paulie because he didn't fight Witter ect... but you also have to take into account Hatton doesn't do the ranking system and whether Hatton chose his No2 to challenge carefully or not it doesn't change the fact that the organisations that do the ranking had Paulie at No 2 in the division and had to do something to get that ranking... i think it is a bit OTT to call it a mismatch

 

Malignaggi was the best, most proven opponent at 140.

Period.

 

Diaz was not hand picked? But Paulie was? Not bias or anything i hope?

 

No one said that he was a one handed puncher before the fight though,.

 

And the fact was.... Paulie was the longest reigning belt holder in the division and most publications no 2

 

No he was not. There were numerous fighters at 140 that were better than Paulie. And how was he proven? His best win was against Ngoudjo, and he struggled to win that fight.