This fight was EXACTLY what was to be expected. Hatton's whole career has involved putting him in a home town ring with CAREFULLY selected refs, usually the despicable Mickey Vann (who is owned lock stock and barrel by the con man Frank Warren). Vann allowed Hatton not to box, but to grapple, wrestle and lean. But with Joe Cortez as the ref, Hatton was stymied. He was prevented from trying to simply lock arms like the octupus he is and forced to actually FIGHT for a change. The results were predictable. PBF was in a different league. I was actually rooting for Hatton when the fight started, as I can't bear Mayweather. But after the first couple of minutes I was reminded why I also can't stand Hatton. Every "fight" of his is a wrestling match. Even last night, all Hatton wanted to do is throw one punch and then grab hold. If not for Cortez, he might have gotten away with it. Naturally Hatton complained about the ref. He's used to having bought-and-paid for refs like Vann to allow him to cheat. After 5 rounds of watching Ricky the Octopus again, again and again trying to simply get close and grab I was ACTIVELY rooting for PBF. Thank God he KO'd Hatton. THANK YOU FLOYD!! Would you like to bet me that Hatton will NEVER again fight outside the UK, with his hand-picked refs available? In a fair fight, and actual BOXING match, he's be beaten by quite a few fighters. Hatton may be a nice guy (though his stream of excuses after the fight and inability to simply say that he lost to the better man makes me wonder a bit), but he is NOT a very good boxer. He's a cheater who, without home-town help from a ref, is not going to win any big fights. Mark my words, you'll never see him fight outside the UK again.
Did you see the Castillo fight???? He got beaten by a better fighter plain and simple. It had nothing to do with the referee.
Welcome to ESB. Unfortunately your first post is quite poor form. Cortez was breaking the action up before anybody actually started clinching. When he eventually let the action flow it was clear that it was Mayweather doing all the spoiling. Ducking too low, holding Hatton's arm and using the forearm were all effective yet dubious tactics. Cortez was poor as a ref, yet it had no real effect on the outcome of the fight. To simply say that Hatton was not allowed to cheat is bad sportsmanship.
As I said, Hatton ALWAYS trys to grab and tie up opponents, making his fights the most frustrating of virtually any "big name" boxer out there. He won't risk a non-friendly ref again, I promise you. He MUST be allowed to hold in order to win.
He's the best 140 pound fighter in the world. He just isn't the best at 147. Only thing that's been exposed is, he's still a great 140 fighter.
who is this god witter who is a killer of the ring all of a sudden - he's fought more bums than hatton and looked poor a lot of the time beating them - he's got a decent win recently and thats it
if witter sucks why was hatton avoiding him like the plague? hatton says he doesn't want to give witter a payday and then witter says he'll fight for winner takes all, hatton backed out.
good post...Hatton got badly overrated from a bunch of handpicked fights, refs etc. He got badly exposed here...finally. and yes, it's pretty obvious he doesn't want a part of Witer
Hatton fought gamely. I feel his style of inside is not boring in the slightest . Castillo and Corrales fought almost exclusively on the inside and it was the greatest fight ever. Mayweather was to fast and clever. he was setting that punch up for 3 rds. backing into corner and letting hatton lunge into left hook. hit him with it in 8th with it just missed it with it earlier in the 10th then got it clean later in the 10th. He outlasted Hattons energy early(with some obvious help from an over active Cortez ) mayweather hit hatton in the back of the head in the 5th and got warned. hatton got a deduction. Cortez twice broke the action inside clearly jumping the gun as they were not tied up. that said mayweather was and is the better fighter.