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The Most Overrated Fighters in Boxing: Ricky Hatton & Antonio Margarito
By Brent Matteo Alderson
Alot of things in life are on a kind of pendulum. For instance when we feel as though something has shifted too far one way we tend to overcompensate by shifting it too far to the other side.
It’s not really that bad because usually the two shifts complement each other and create a perfect balance just like the one in an Old Grandfather Clock. Sometimes a balance doesn’t occur and this is what’s happened to the boxing world’s perception of Antonio Margarito and Ricky Hatton. After ignoring, underestimating, and underrating both Margarito and Hatton, the boxing world has come to grossly overrate these two talented pugilists.
The thing about it is that it’s just not a few writers here and there, it’s everybody. Most of the Senior Writers for the Ring and its sister publications as well as most of the writers from the internet have opined that “Antonio Margarito and Ricky Hatton are probably the only two guys that can really challenge or beat Mayweather.”
Yes Hatton deserved the fighter of the year honors since Taylor’s wins over Hopkins were so competitive and so pitifully boring that it would have been more appropriate to have labeled their two fight series a stalemate. As a result of the controversial decisions, Ricky Hatton deservedly won fighter of the year honors based on his win over Kostya Tszyu who along with Ross, Chavez, and Pryor was probably one of the greatest 140-pounders in history.
Still I do think that we have given way too much credit to the little Englishman from Manchester. Tszyu had only fought once in a two and a half year period and even though he was impressive in his second fight against Sharmba Mitchell after coming back from a number of injuries I think the boxing fraternity put too much stock in Tszyu’s performance against Mitchell and as a result have credited Ricky with a win over a near prime Tszyu.
I don’t know what happened to Mitchell in that second fight because he had looked as impressive in his bouts prior to facing Tszyu as he had at any other point in his career with the possible exception of his title winning performance against Khalid Rahilou. I just think that Sharmba had waited so long to meet Kostya and was so psyched out that he lent caution to the wind and tried to take the fight to the Russian which enabled Tszyu to turn the bout into the type of fight that Mitchell would never be able to win.
Yes, Hatton’s title winning performance was impressive, but Tszyu was a couple months shy of 36 years old and hadn’t really been active since 2001. Kostya was ripe for the taking so I don’t put as much stock in that victory as a lot of the other writers. Also, Ricky’s skin is just a little bit better than Daniel Zaragoza’s in that he doesn’t get cut at the weigh in, but waits for the bout to begin.
In addition he lacks international experience at the world class level and hasn’t fought outside of his native England since he was a preliminary fighter. Hometown cooking is so important and the longer I follow boxing the more I realize it. Nigel Benn would have been stopped by Gerald McClellan if the bout had taken place anywhere else.
I just think it’s ludicrous to think that Hatton could challenge Mayweather. To beat Floyd you’re going to have to be able to hurt him and your going to have to be able to take some punishment in return and Hatton won’t be able to do that. Floyd will bust him up and open up all that scar tissue with his sharp punching and after seeing Lacy’s performance against Calzaghe, Mayweather isn’t going to be so eager to go over to England so Hatton won’t receive any special treatment or calls such as a ref declaring that his cuts were caused from a butt (not a punch) and the bout will be an easy TKO for the Pretty Boy. I just think the outcome is elementary and would far rather watch the Pretty Boy against Margarito, Mosley, or Cotto.
Hatton challenge Mayweather? If you think that, you’re either an Englishman or you like to follow the herd.
This brings me to boxing’s second most overrated fighter; Antonio Margarito. I know that the Tijuanan native is tough, but after ignoring him for years the press is making him out to be a super monster like a 6’2 Welterweight named Tommy Hearns, an undefeated Roy Jones, or a young Hector Camacho. Just take a look at Margarito’s career.
He lost to Daniel Santos which isn’t that bad of a thing since the Puerto Rican is practically a Light-Heavyweight masquerading as a 154-pounder, but he also had too fight twelve fairly competitive with Danny Perez and had to go to war with Antonio Diaz who was starched by Mosley and who received a gift decision against Cory Spinks. Yes, his win over Kermit Cintron was impressive, but David Estrada isn’t that big of a puncher and he had Kermit on Queer Street a couple of times.
And most of Maragrito’s other impressive wins aren’t really that impressive. Andrew Six Heads Lewis had already been ruined by Ricardo Mayorga and Hercules Kyvelos was knocked out by Cosme Rivera, a Judah knock out victim, in his very next fight. The fact of the matter is that Antonio Margarito hasn’t beaten anybody yet.
I’ll admit Margarito has a lot going for him. He’s huge for the welterweight division, hell he’d even be a decent sized middleweight, he’s always in shape, punches fairly hard, and has a chin of granite. A guy with those traits is going to be tough for anyone. That being said, I still think Antonio is overrated and lacks that little something to be a great fighter and believe that a boxer with smooth skills like Mayweather will be able to outclass him and Harold Lederman echoed a similar opinion, “If Margarito couldn’t beat Daniel Santos on two different occasions, he’s not going to beat Floyd Mayweather.“
Antonio is kind of like an Oba Carr or an Edwin Virtuet, guys who were good and maybe could have been champions in other eras, but who in the end weren’t good enough to be world champions in their own eras. Still Margarito has earned the right to fight the best and deserves the match with Mayweather. In fact I’m glad that Arum made Floyd a legitimate 10 million dollar to fight Antonio because it’s about time that Floyd starts working for his money. Judah was real, but his matches with Mitchell and Bruseles were disgusting mismatches that I couldn’t even finish watching.
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! Cool Click #261 , thanks for sharing ! 
Originally Posted by Lyle
Eggz-fwockin-zactly!
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