Mayweather and Pac are fighters that people will still be talking about in 100 years time. To fall short against them is no big disgrace.
At least Hatton took on the best :good He wasn't taken apart savagely by Mayweather. Floyd was just clinical and hurt Hatton later on when the infighting caught up with him. Hatton stands head and shoulders above Joe for me for just being in that ring with them two
Why would this impact on what people think of Hatton? Every fight is different, Hatton got decimated as if one would expect from a journeyman against Pacquiao. The fight itself reflects poorly on him.
I still insist Hatton was shot by the time he fought Pacquiao, (not taking anything away from the manner in which Manny dispatched of him so clinically). The Malignaggi fight couldn't disguise the fact that Lazcano had him all over the place on a couple of occasions.
The word "shot" is thrown around too easily on this site. Hatton was not shot when he fought Pacquiao. He lost because he fought a stupid fight against someone much better than him. Admittedly they fought each other at differing stages of their careers, but Hatton was not shot.
They had the same problem. Anytime Cotto tried to brawl with Pacquiao, he got demolished. Hatton came out with his hands down trying to brawl and he got demolished. Cotto fought a much smarter fight, but had pretty much identical problems to Hatton.
Because Cotto was down twice in four rounds and could have easily been stopped in that 4th if the knockdown had happened earlier in the round. So if you've got a 160 pound plus Cotto who's been in with big/sharp punchers before and rarely had his legs taken from under him and he's being sent sprawling by Pacquiao and on the verge of being stopped by the 4th round, then maybe Hatton getting pasted for 2 rounds isn't as embarrassing as first thought.....and shows that Pacquiao does have incredible one shot power, even at welterweight, let alone 140.
Okay, maybe 'shot' was a tad strong, but I insist Hattons's punch resistance was severely diminished, (especially post Floyd), due to his well documented defensive shortcomings and equally well established tendancy to gain obscene amounts of weight inbetween bouts. Should he return, I believe even a single fight against a moderate puncher would confirm/repudiate this. I also think that the Ricky that turned up for the Tszyu fight would've been pummelled by Pacquiao in a simiar fashion.
My opinion of Ricky Hatton has always been the same,he was great for British boxing for a while and I think he did remarkably well considering how limited he was as a boxer.Never once beat a world class fighter in their prime but somehow managed to get big fights against fighters that were in a different class to him. Ricky has shown that if you are marketed well and have a nice presentable padded record under Frank Warren then the world is your oyster and there are hundreds of thousands that will fall for the bullsh*t smoke and mirrors.
Most likely..... His punch resistance wasn't all that in the first place. Don't get me wrong, he was never glass jawed or anything, nor was he Oliver McCall. Up to and including the Collazo fight he still had head movement and so on..... but that disappeared. The weight gain probably had the same impact on him as it did Riddick Bowe - disabled the reflexes to a degree and hurt his skills. But Bowe's punch resistance was top class, right until the end, including the beating he took in the Golota II fight. Shot fighters generally are slower, flat footed and such. His footwork was fine in the Pac fight, his handspeed was pretty much the same, as was his power. Just everything else......
Aw **** off!! Never beat a world class fighter in their prime? Get real, for a start both Paulie and Urango are still kicking arse at 140....