The Brits career might be over now. He has gotten plenty of bashing at least from this site and the newest Rocky Hatton vs Julian Jackson MMs are yet to come. So I thought the non-haters could give him a bit props - Hatton was the undisputed champion of his division for four years. He defended that status succesfully five times. Does not sound like big numbers, but it is very rare these days. For example - after unifying the middleweight crown Hopkins only had six defenses too. - In those championship fight Hatton fought three opponents that were ranked #1 or first challengers by The Ring. All them, Tszyu, Castillo, Malignggi, he defeated inside the distance. - He is probably the only fighter ever who has made tens of thousands of people travel from one continent to another to him fight. In Mayweather fight only three thousand tickets was sold to Brits, yet ten times more people travelled to Vegas. - He only ever lost to two guys who were ranked as the best fighters in the world at the fight time. Well done from a skilless hype job I'd sayartie:
Eh, he was a very good fighter, but while most of what you say is correct, it's a nice slurp job none the less. The sport is less for fighters of his ilk, if he leaves though.
I like Ricky Hatton as a person (at least what I saw on the two 24/7's he was on). Good family man, funny guy, lives humble, and scrappy fighter. I hope he fights on, but not for too much longer.
Hatton is a good fighter and immensely strong. He could still beat some very good fighters. But he was kind of exposed tonight and his chin is far less reliable than I thought.
Right. The idea pretty much was to bring out facts FOR Hatton, if just for a change. He has been good for the sport
he was braver than british boxers normally are: slappy, naz, eubank, all of them hid for years, and never tested their full potential. hatton did his fair share of hiding for several years; but fighting zoo, floyd, and pac in their primes redeemed him. hopefully future british boxers consider hatton's popularity and wealth and follow him as an example, rather than the usual strategy that brits have followed for the past 20 years. this battering against pacman signals the end of this generation of brit boxers, who had all their most significant fights in the first decade of the 21st century: slappy and hatton led it, with characters (of generally dubious ability) like scott harrison, danny williams, junior witter, howard eastman, johnny nelson underneath them. most of these guys ducked, or the few that stepped up were heavily exposed (eastman, williams). the upcoming generation looks to be spearheaded by amir khan, whose career is already besmirched by warren's avoidant matchmaking and an alarmingly low punch-resistance. (carl froch's recent success will surely not continue beyond 2010.) but it remains to be seen whether david haye will lose convincingly to wlad and thus have his career too categorised into the unfulfilling slappy-hatton generation, or whether he will beat wlad and extend his career into the next decade, marking himself out as a suitable leader of the next generation of britain's boxers, just as lennox straddled the 90s and the 00s. overall the lessons we learned were: don't let frank warren manage you, and don't be a chickenshit. ricky hatton was the only person to follow both these rules, and will go down as perhaps the most popular and wealthy british boxer of all time. use the commercial firepower that the dopey british fans give you to make fights, not to avoid them.
Agreed he's a good person but after a knockout like that he should stick to being a family man. He's made good money in the sport.
he had the courage to fight zoo close to his prime. it may have turned out that zoo was far past his prime in the course of the fight - but ricky didn't know this beforehand. he signed to fight a zoo that was ranked top 5 p4p: hence zoo's installment as the overwhelming bookies' favourite, and stevedave's premonition, "hatton might die in the ring."
Largely my sentiments too. It's become very easy to hate on Hatton, and increasingly difficult to support him, but whilst Hatton is a level below the other leading British fighter of the era (Calzaghe), unlike Joe he decided he'd had enough of Werren's hideousness and decided to take his chances. Wins against Tszyu, Castillo and Mallinaggi are all very good wins, and for at least four years he was the undisputed top guy in his division. He moved up to 147 where he was less effective and still managed to win a world title there. After the Collazo fight, at the end of which he was almost on queer street, it would have been easy for him to come back hiding to England and to milk mandatories in Manchester, but he stayed to fight and deserves major props for doing so IMHO. Two losses in 47 fights is a pretty good campaign; especially when considering that his two losses were against the best fighter in the world at the time. Ultimately he was found out at that exhalted level, but at the level below he was an extremely effective operator and, if he foolishly decides to carry on, probably still is. Moreover, Hatton brought boxing back into the British mainstream where it had faded after Lennox's retirement (and who was never THAT popular over here anyway) and Hamed's disappearance. The major legacy that Hatton leaves is that boxing is live, on a plethora of channels, on an almost weekly basis and people who had no interest in the sport here now do so- I watched the fight at my brothers house with a dozen other people last night; people who otherwise wouldn't have given two fucks about the sport. That is something he can be rightly proud of. MTF :bears:
I which him well the 12+ million he made for the fight is a nice get well soon check..... looking at that fight Hatton look like a fish out of water...he didn't know who the fuck he was suppose to be...it's like someone told him the right hand is a good punch vs. the southpaws and he kept throwing it like an amateur..even though it was being counter by the right hook... Manny had a perfect plan and he executed it with perfection...
Just makes Floyd Mayweather look worse and worse. 10 rounds to beat an 'unskilled hype job' in Hatton. 12 round close decision over a shot Oscar in a fight even Floyd's old man thought he lost. What a legacy for Floyd! :: No wonder he's coming back. A few more wins over handpicked little men while guys like Mosley and Williams are out there. :dunno:
Yup...Hatton didn't wait till Mayweather/Pacquiao got old to fight 'em like Calzaghe did with the great fighters in his resume...
The most interesting thing about his comeback for me is going to be how he/ his fans justify him not facing the best guys out there now. That little brain must be working overtime...
