Why Hatton is not worthy of your support

There are plenty of reasons to not be a fan of Ricky Hatton. I was once one of his biggest supporters and had the pleasure of watching him come up through the ranks. I saw him fight live in Manchester on no less than 15 occasions, the last of which being the Vince Phillips fight. That moment was a watershed for me, it was the moment that I decided that I was no longer satisfied with watching Hatton blow through the same limited opponents each week. For the next two years we were treated with contests against the likes of Aldo Rios and Denis Pederson whilst Hatton’s extraordinary pay demands nixed fights against credible opponents like Sharmba Mitchell and Vivian Harris. I personally decided that I was no longer a fan after Hatton withdrew from the mandatory challenger’s position to Harris’ WBA title because Harris (the then World Champion) wanted 50% of the purse, this was unacceptable to Hatton who withdrew when it looked to be heading the way of a purse bid. All of this smacks of greed, Hatton is without a shadow of a doubt the greediest fighter of his generation.

He is also risk-adverse, he has a long and well documented history of sending himself down the path of least resistance. Not many people know this but prior to his fight with Kostya Tszyu Hatton had failed to meet even one recognised top 10 opponent. The best of the bunch was Ben Tackie who fell outside of the top 10 after being completely outclassed by both Mitchell and Tszyu. I was of the opinion that Hatton had done nothing to deserve a crack at Tszyu, but money talks and by that time Hatton was big business and I guess Tszyu fancied a big payday (I believe he got 7m) before hanging up his gloves.

Even when Hatton did finally step up to world level by taking on Tszyu they ensured that his chances of success were maximised by insisting Tszyu come to Manchester and by waiting until he was very old and on the way down. Even in opting to go after Floyd, a fight that even the simplest of human beings could see that Hatton had very little chance of winning, they ensured that Hatton would get a monstrous payday and had many excuses to fall back on in the event that he lost (fighting above his wait, fighting on foreign soil, fighting one of the greatest fighter’s in history, still the 140lbs linear champion). And now we are facing the prospect of watching Hatton, for a second time, face Floyd in what would undoubtedly be one of the biggest money spinners since… well… since Hatton-Mayweather 1. And what will Hatton have done to have deserved a second shot at the P4P king? Precisely squat. He will have beaten an utter nobody in Juan Lazcano and beaten Paul Malignaggi who you can add to the increasing list of very weak paper champions that Hatton has beaten.

I could also talk about how Hatton built up his initial fan base by leveraging off of the name of Manchester City Football Club and then choosing to hobnob with the more fashionable Manchester United (City’s arch rivals) players like Wayne Rooney and David Beckham. I could also talk about how he ducked his most credible domestic rival Junior Witter for the best part of a decade sighting reasons that stink of hypocrisy and in doing so denied the British public a fight they so sorely wanted to see. I could talk about how Hatton has positioned and marketed himself as ‘a fighter of the people’ yet continues to abuse the support of his fans who have never held Hatton accountable for any of the above antics and would turn out to watch Hatton fight Mickey Mouse or Juan Lazcano. I could talk about the comical rhetoric that comes from him and his team, like how Hatton professes to be the most exciting and entertaining fighter in the world, yet over the last 3 years has fought with a style more akin to John Ruiz than Jack Dempsey. Or in the aftermath of the Collazo fight how Luis was touted around by Billy Graham as the second coming of Winky Wright, a claim that had many of us in stitches and would later be proven to be as stupid as many of us initially believed.

In short, Hatton is not a fighter’s fighter, he will rarely appeal to purists like me who prefer to see their fighters pursue meaningful contests against the best opponents available and possess a level of steely confidence in their ability negating the need to assess risk. Hatton is nothing more than a media product straight out of the Oscar De La Hoya school, he is a brand. Over the years his fights have increasingly become more about filling stadiums, breaking attendance/PPV records and broadly speaking generating revenue and less about actual BOXING.

As a result of all of the above, it is the view of this humble writer that Ricky Hatton is not deserving of your support.

 

Thanks. I understand entirely that boxing is a business and the men who take part in this brutal sport do so to provide a living for themselves and their close ones – there is no shame in this. The reason why I single out Hatton in particular is two fold:

• 
  Hatton takes it too far. Before he even fought Floyd last year he had already made enough money to last him and his family several life times over, I personally had helped line his pockets. There comes a point at which most fans would reasonably expect a fighter to dampen such avid pursuit of dollars and start facing the men that matter and set about returning on people's investment in him.

• 
  For the longest time Hatton claimed that he desperately sought the biggest fights against the best fighters available, yet his actions demonstrated the contrary as the very fights that he professed to yearn for fell through due to his pay demands. What would have been more accurate for Hatton to say would be this: “I desperately want to fight the very best fighters out there but only if I have home advantage, my referees and at least 70% of the purse whether you’re the champion or not”.

He just comes across as fraudulent to me.