Although Hatton had only a 30-40% chance of beating Floyd Mayweather on a level playing field, the boys in Las Vegas made sure the odds were even less than that by having the referee and the judges in their back pocket. The ref never would let Hatton fight his fight and the judges were to make sure that the visitor would lose if it ever made it to the cards. That was clear by the actions of Joe Cortez and the scoring of the earlier rounds by the Las Vegas based judges. Hatton would only win by KO if he was to win. If Calzaghe decides to fight Hopkins in the US, he will be given the same set of constraints. The only difference is that Hopkins is the one with the 30-40% chance of beating Calzaghe on a level playing field but we can all be assured that the field will be steeply tilted in HopkinsĀ favor come fight day. Calzaghe I hope you make sure the ref is not US based and the judges are a diverse crew because unlike Hatton, your opponent needs you to cement his legacy and make the final big pay day which gives you some say on the venue. Be tough in your negotiations and be willing to walk away if you are not given a fair deal.
Calzaghe has a 100% chance of winning. 100% even if he has one arm, he can do it on the jab alone. The referee cannot stop Joe jabbing, nor can he help Hopkins actually land a punch. All they can try and do is stop Calzaghe KOing him.
I wouldnt be suprised at all to see Joe lose to B-Pops, thanks to a dubiouse coupld of scorecards. Anything and everything happens in america!!
Oh, kinda like the ref in the Tszyu fight let Hatton get away with wrestling for most of the fight? Come on now. Hatton is a good fighter, but he simply lost to the better man that night. Did Joe Cortez make a couple of dubious calls? Yeah, but the same thing happened when Hatton fought Tszyu and I didn't hear any Hatton fans complain then.
That is if the judges were not hand picked. I would not be suprised if Calzaghe schools Hopkins and loses the decision.
You seem to forget that Hatton became desperate once he knew he was behind on the cards and his only chance of winning was a KO which made him take chances. The result was the KO. PBF is such a great fighter and would most likely have won with his judges and ref or not. What pisses me off as an American and a fan of his is that the ref and the judges tainted his win with their tactics. How can the public respect boxing when crap like this goes on? A lot of people I work with who are not big boxing fans watched the fight, thought PBF was great but also thought Hatton was screwed. Their feelings were usually, "Boxing is the most corrupt sport". If any of you guys are true fans of boxing, you should be very dispointed.
Tszyu would have KO's Hatton too if Cortez was the ref. Tszyu was the one that was screwed during his fight with Hatton and that upset a lot of fans also. The home town cooking needs to stop.
nah man.....Hatton did nothing in this fight to deserve a close score card...the cleanest punching FLoyd...better infighting Floyd better outside fighting Floyd. Better connection percentage Floyd....i mean dont get me wrong Hatton made Floyd step his game up with that smothering pressure. Now the Ref....ok...when they got in the early rounds there was always a clinch.....i dont care who initiated it...it was a clinch or tie-up....the ref can let them work that out or break it...now early in the fight...i agree the ref was premature in some of the breaks but i think he let a lot go in the later rounds and Hatton still got ate alive on the inside he didn't work at all. Boxing has ALWAYS had a corrupt suspicion...its not just now...hey its nothing anyone can do about it but in this instance...Floyd clearly was the dominant boxer in all rounds...except maybe one or two. another thing whats desperate? Hatton was throwing that lunging punch the WHOLE FIGHT....he applied fast pressure all fight...he did nothing out of character.
I don't know why everyone says Hopkins would get blown out by Calzaghe. The only danger for him is the volume of punches Calzaghe throws, so he would need to be more active than usual to avoid getting decisioned based on pure output of punches. Other than that, Hopkins has fought infinitely more tough opponents and I believe is undefeated against southpaws. At least give the old man credit for having a legit chance to win if the fight happens.
I see your point but I think Cortez was able to let off because he had already done his damage. There was no way that Ricky Hatton would be able to take that amount of punishment more than a few rounds. Floyd with Cortez's help had already softened Hatton up and the fight was already won. I knew at the end of the first round that Hatton would get KO'd. Cortez almost ruined a great fight. In fact, he did.
