The difference between Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe

You really are in a spazzier mood than usual today.

It's quite simple.

Even if we frame using your made up parameters, Hatton had 38 fights before he fought Tszyu and 43 to Mayweather.

Prior to that he spent several years making defences of what he claimed to be a World title, mostly at the MEN arena, against less than stellar opposition. During much of this time he was being criticised for the standard of his opposition and for not 'stepping up'.

Is there some reason that you don't remember this?

 

Irrelevant. Hatton could not even raise the issue of a fight with Mayweather until he first was a recognized world champion, then had the profile to justify a welterweight title shot in the US (against Collazo). To do this, he needed Tszyu, as Tszyu was the clear best lww in the world, and he was only sporadically active over the couple of years prior to the 2005 fight with Hatton. Ricky Hatton designed his career around a crack at true greatness and the p4p#1 kingpin.

Did Joe? Or did he design his to avoid this issue?

 

Does it even matter, really?

At the end of it Hatton got his ass kicked as all logical viewers suspected he would.

He tried, he failed, just like Carlos Baldomir and 36 other guys.

 

Just like Calzaghe would have had he the guts to do what Hatton did and reach for glory.

 

Maybe Calzaghe would, but he didn't and we won't ever know for sure the outcome.

What we do know is Hatton got his ass well and truely owned in that boxing ring, conclusively proving he isn't even close to greatness.

 

He did. He was punished for daring to dream, whereas those who coldly calculate their every move are showered with unjust adulation from all corners. It's the sad side of the sport.

 

He wasn't punished for anything except in those shitty rankings, this being one of the examples I pointed out to you with their inconsistency.

Nothing he did prior to that hinted at greatness so it wasn't as if we were lowering his status. He just came badly unraveled and proved he's not at that kind of level.

 

Over the past three years Hatton and Calzaghe have both faced the very best possible opposition in and around their weight class. Prior to that, neither did so, and both were criticised for not doing so.

Aside from that, I'm not sure even you know what you were trying to make out of this thread.

 

Hatton spent 3 and a half years with the WBU. Even if one was to include Hattons time with the WBU as a genuine world title, Hatton was still far quicker to chase the big fights then Joe ever was. How long was Joe with the WBO - getting on ten years?

Hatton purposely broke away from Warran to chase the big fights relatively early in his career; Joe shockingly broke away from Warren (for only possibly his last ever fight) because if reports are to be believed, Warren wanted a live fight with a young p4p fighter instead of one with a shot to pieces fighter.:yikes

Calzaghe is on record stating that Hatton inspired him to chase the bigger fights, and up his game.

The facts are that one of the fighters made a move to chase the real big fights while still in their twenties, the other finally made a move but at a time when there were no real big fights out there for him to chase.

Hatton is now contemplating fights with the p4p no1, and p4p no2, whilst being ridiculed. In the mean time many wait with baited breath ready to bow down to their second coming - if Joe dare take a live fight against a contender.

 

A live contender? What are you babbling on about?

Weren't Kessler, Lacy and Hopkins considered "live" enough for you? :nut

I assume you bet the farm on Calzaghe in all 3 cases and have taken residence in Jersey.

 

Aye, where did I say they were not. I stated that everyone is now waiting with baited breath to see if Calzaghe will take a fight against a live contender - which part of that statement is wrong?

 

Yes, but Calzaghe has been a world champion for 11 years, Hatton for 3. You can tiptoe around that fact with all your technicalities all day, you know it's true, hence the denial.

Hatton chased a fight with the p4p#1 from the minute he became a world champion. Calzaghe did nothing to initiate a fight with the world p4p#1 for the 7 years they were champions in adjacent divisions.

That's my only point.

 

And what were you trying to point out with that? Are we supposed to be up in arms that a guy aged 36 MAY retire? You say it as if he's been fighting straight up bums recently.

 

He unravelled at that level because he took a chance at it. Calzaghe would have unravelled against Jones had he fought him 2-3 years after becoming a world champion. I salute Calzaghe's calculated career, it has worked for him, not fighting Jones has been proved to be the right decision, when you compare his career to Hatton's.

 

Nope, just making a little comparison with Hatton since Ricky is fighting this week. If the comparison makes you uncomfortable, not my problem.