NEW YORK (March 16, 2008) – IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie “The Magic Man†Malignaggi hopes to ink a pact early next week to confirm his dream deal: a two-fight arrangement culminating with a showdown against the world’s recognized No. 1 junior welterweight, Ricky Hatton, The Ring magazine and IBO title-holder. http://fightbeat.com/news_details.php?NW=21313
Of course it's a reality. Hatton's becoming a bigger joke than Malignaggi is. Maybe Hatton should move to the US and apply to be on the contender while he's at it. Fucking joke is scared of Witter, he's scared to fight anyone with a pulse who isn't over the hill. He must have took the Mayweather fight for the money.
He says he won't give Witter a payday because he keeps insulting him, but ive gotta ask where these insults are. Ive watched the videos of Witter calling out Hatton and read interviews where Witter called him out. He didn't say anything personal, just that he could beat him. Is that too insulting to have a guy say he can beat you. Them cans he fought obviously never said that because they even knew they had no chance of winning. Having said that Malignaggi has talked way more shit about Hatton then Mayweather did and he is willing to fight him. We all know that Paulie spends most of the fight running and jabbing because his right hand is so busted so he is the biggest money least risk fight to take.
I know you hate Ricky, but I've come to realise that you are actually a pretty knowledgeable guy so I'll overlook that for a second... :: I really do think Hatton will fight Witter eventually. He'll just make him sweat. Witter needs Hatton a MILLION times more than Hatton needs Witter, and both men know it. With the exception of the obvious, most guys here didn't even RATE Witter until Floyd beat Hatton, and NOW suddenly Hatton has been avoiding him all along? :dunno: Hatton should beat Paulie pretty handily IMO, unless he (as some have suggested) has been in slow decline since he beat Tsyzu. I for one hope that Ricky takes the major lesson from having his ass handed to him last November and goes back to working behind his left jab and throwing bombs to the body instead of this foolish 'leaping left hook and grabbing' lead he seems to want to employ on nowadays. Collazo exposed that silliness to some extent, Floyd completely exposed it and, for what it's worth, Witter would also because his elusive, counter punching style is very 'Floyd-Esque' in nature. If he starts doing the basics properly again, he'll have too much for Paulie who is too powderpuff to hurt Ricky and stop him coming in. MTF
No it isn't hate. Well not so much. Any hate has to do with me going back and reassesing Hatton's comp and other than Floyd all he did was pick on old time over the hill guys before that. As for Witter, it didn't take Hatton to lose to Floyd, what it took was for Witter to keep proving himself against much better comp than Hatton has been facing. The Harris win was huge for Witter, and that alone should be good enough to make Hatton pay attention to Witter. Hatton shouldn't be making anyone sweat. This game isn't just about him. It's about his legacy, and his fans and boxing fans the world over. If he fucks around and makes Witter sweat he could miss a big oppurtunity to create a decent legacy, especially since he's already talking about retirement and hasn't even done shit yet.
No offence, but that just isn't the case IMO. Junior's two best wins are against Kotelnik and Harris. Kotelnik is no more than a decent (in world terms) fighter who is roughly on the same level as Urango and Maussa. Vivian was clearly shot to bits when he fought Junior, at least as much as Kostya seems to have been when Ricky beat him. However, Vivian was never the same level of fighter as Kostya was, and it should be recalled that Ricky was a hefty underdog going into that fight. The shouts of 'inactive' and 'shot' only appeared after the bout. Even Castillo, who definitely WAS shot, was picked by many to beat Ricky in what was considered a pretty even fight beforehand. Even the razor thin (and arguably wrongly awarded) win over Collazo is better than anything Junior has achieved to date IMO. Seriously, besides Junior (and not many were saying this at the time- it's been a very recent development), who else should Hatton have been fighting at 140 after beating Kostya? Who has Junior fought who Hatton NEEDED to fight to further prove his status as No.1 @ 140? :dunno: I'm not shitting on Junior, you understand. I think he's been badly avoided for years and is clearly THE threat to Hatton at 140. I am now and have been for some time a big fan, and I wish Ricky would stop fucking about and get on with fighting him- it's the SINGLE fight I want to see this year (or early next). But to say that Hatton needs to fight Junior to establish a 'decent legacy' cannot be right- Hatton already has that. He needs to fight and beat Junior to establish that he was THE 140lb-er of the mid/late 2000's. MTF
This is good news because Hatton/Malignaggi is the best fight at 140 I also like it because it is less likely that top rank can pursue a fight with Hatton for Pacquiao at the end of the year. Leaving a third fight with Marquez more likely once Pacquiao beats the fuck out of Diaz. :warning:
