The Year of the Hitman.

It was this time last year that Ricky Hatton took his biggest test to date, a show down with Ghanaian hard man Ben “Wonder” Tackie. Hatton dominated the fight, looking aggressive and classy throughout. Hatton’s best performance against his toughest opponent, and then came those immortal words: “We’re going to go for

Click for larger image © Mike Cleary

it next year!” All Hatton fans and boxing fans alike were excited, Tackie was a step up in the right direction so a top-ten ranked opponent had to be next on the cards, there was nothing to suggest otherwise. This year was meant to be Hatton’s year, but it quickly turned into a year he’d rather forget. The first time the general boxing public saw Hatton was at a press conference to promote the hitman’s upcoming fight with Kelson Pinto. Pinto wasn’t top ten-ranked, however, he was number one with the WBO and carried a very impressive record. On paper, this looked like it would be a great war. More importantly, Sharmba Mitchell was the chief support to the fight defending his interim IBF title against Michael ‘No Joke’ Stewart. This wasn’t just a fight to keep Mitchell in shape for his fight with Kostya Tszyu later in the year, he was being show cased to the vast Manchester crowd as a possible future opponent for Hatton, in fact Frank Warren, Hatton’s promoter was negotiating with the Mitchell camp already.

The press conference was a good few weeks before the fight and people were already commenting on how good Hatton looked in training when in previous fights he’d had trouble keeping his weight down. Things couldn’t have been going better in the build up to the fight, that is until the week before. Pinto had not got on a plane to England, first citing illness as a problem, then saying his wife had just given birth and he wanted to stay with her in Brazil. A new opponent had to be found at very short notice. Up stepped Dennis Holbaek Pedersen. Pedersen was not a real light welterweight; in fact, this would be his first fight at the weight. His only previous claim to fame was shaking up and going twelve rounds with Paul Spadafora at lightweight. Hatton had trained for the big hitting, six-foot tall pinto and now he was having to fight a small, stocky fighter who had been out of the ring for over a year. Hatton wasn’t happy and neither were the fans. It wasn’t the start to the year that everyone had hoped for.

Mitchell out pointed Stewart with ease, dropping his man three times throughout the fight. In the post fight interview, Frank Warren and the Mitchell camp had some banter over the possibility of a Hatton-Mitchell contest. Mitchell’s manger, Gary Shaw, told Frank Warren that it was time for Hatton to step up. Mitchell himself claimed he would do the same to Hatton as he had just done to Stewart. Ricky beat Pedersen in six very one-sided rounds in a performance that was a bit flat by his high standards. The day after the fight, I met with Ricky at the pub his father used to own. Ricky told me he longed for the big fights. He voiced his frustrations at how the big fights had not come. This was before I was a boxing writer, he wasn’t saying these things in hope I’d write an article about how desperate he was for the big fights. He was telling anyone that was listening. Any article that I had read about him being happy about fighting lesser opponents on his home turf were instantly dismissed. He wasn’t happy with these fights at all.

Frank Warren wanted to put on a big double header. His two prized assets Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton on the same bill both fighting for titles. Calzaghe was going to fight Glen Johnson in a move up to light heavyweight and Hatton was to take on Mitchell in a fight for the IBF interim title and to maybe get a crack at Kostya Tszyu afterwards. This would certainly cheer up unhappy fans that were disappointed by Kelson Pinto’s no show. The show soon ran into trouble. Calzaghe had to pull out due to injuries in training and the Mitchell and Hatton camps were in dispute over money. To make matters worse this fight was scheduled for only eight weeks after the Pedersen fight, Ricky suffered very bruised knuckles during that fight and so couldn’t use the whole eight weeks to prepare properly. Finally, the Mitchell-Hatton fight fell through and Carlos Wilfredo Vilches was brought in to fight Hatton. This was a bitter disappointment for fans that had brought tickets to see two very competitive world title fights.

Again, the fans turned out in full, most expecting a four round walk over, how wrong they were. The fight went twelve rounds, arguably the hardest twelve rounds of Hatton’s career. After four rounds fans watching the fight on Sky TV could see and hear Ricky telling his long-time trainer Billy Graham that he didn’t feel good whilst coughing up a lot of phlegm. Billy told his man not to become despondent and to keep on going as he was winning the fight. Frank Warren didn’t have it easy either. Adam Smith, one of Sky’s commentators and post fight interviewers, asked Ricky if he would be swapping promoters if the big fights he so desperately craved didn’t appear. Before Hatton could answer Warren jumped in and gave Smith a piece of his mind, saying that if sky want to show Hatton in big fights they should put up more money so the fights could be made.

Ricky Hatton was not a happy boxer. His good relationship with Frank Warren was becoming strained, he was being slated by American boxing writers and boxers for not taking big fights, he felt he had let down his fans by not fighting bigger names or putting on a good show against Vilches and Sharmba Mitchell’s team had put up a wanted poster on the internet mocking him. Finally, it happened. Frank Warren announced that Ricky Hatton’s next fight would be against newly crowned WBA champion, “Vicious” Vivian Harris. Harris talked a great fight. He said he’d happily go to Hatton’s hometown and destroy the hitman with the kind of rib-crunching body shots that Hatton was famous for. It was heating up nicely. This was just what Hatton wanted. The reports coming out of the Phoenix camp were that Hatton was training like a man possessed. He was motivated and couldn’t wait to prove his mettle as a fighter. Lightning never strikes twice so thrice would be unheard of right? Wrong!

After meeting Harris’s pay demands the champion raised his price again. Frank Warren was desperate to make the fight though and dug deep into his own pocket to match the figure that “Vicious” Vivian was demanding. This was still not good enough. Harris decided that he wanted the fight to go to purse bids and even voiced that he wanted the fight to be held in his home town of Philadelphia. Holding the fight in Philly would make it impossible to raise the revenue needed to pay the boxers. In Manchester, up to 20,000 fans would buy tickets, in Philly, they would be lucky to get 5,000 through the gate.

The fight was off…Again. Hatton would now fight Mike ‘No Joke’ Stewart, the very same Mike Stewart that Sharmba Mitchell picked apart earlier in the year. This fight was worth something though. The winner would be the mandatory challenger to face the winner of Kostya Tszyu-Sharmba Mitchell. Hatton’s performance was top notch. It was a one sided beating that lasted four rounds; Stewart barely got a shot in. As soon as the fight was over, Hatton leaned over the ropes and shouted, “that’s more like it!!” And everyone agreed. The post-fight interview was a lot more up beat, Adam Smith this time mentioning that Hatton was not only the mandatory for the IBF title but also the mandatory challenger for Miguel Cotto’s WBO title that he beat none other than Kelson Pinto for. Warren’s reply was simple, “we’re obviously doing something right then.” Nothing is ever simple in the world of Ricky Hatton though, Frank was concerned to say the least at the amount of empty seats in the MEN Arena.

After two years of delays caused by injury, Sharmba Mitchell and Kostya Tszyu finally got in the ring together. The boxing public saw it as a 50/50 fight. Tszyu had been out of the ring for two years and no one knew how much that absence from the ring would affect him. Mitchell on the other hand had fought very regularly, and although his reflexes had dulled slightly he was still seen as a very slick operator. The first round was cagey with Mitchell having the better start but it didn’t take Tszyu long to catch up. For some reason in the second round, Mitchell decided to hold his feet and trade, not a good idea against one of the hardest pound for pound punchers in the world. Tszyu rocked Mitchell with just about every shot he connected with and eventually floored his man towards the end of the round.

Where Tszyu goes next is a mystery. He is at the end of his career and is looking for big money fights that will cement his legacy and maybe a position in the hall of fame. Miguel Cotto is another kettle of fish. Both he and Hatton are seen as the future of the division. The ideal situation for both camps would be for the two to fight for the undisputed title or at least some sort of unification match. This would be a super fight making a maximum amount of money for both parties. It would be a waste of an opportunity if the two were to meet now. However, with Ricky Hatton’s luck with fights being what it is it might be his only option, but what better way to show the world what he’s made of?

Hatton likes to fight around Christmas time and this Christmas he took on “Sucra” Ray Oliveira in what fans and pundits a like saw as a routine title defense and a warm up for a hopeful fight with undisputed champion Kostya Tszyu. It seems everyone was forgetting how tough Oliveira is. Out of fifty-eight fights, he’d won forty-seven, twenty-two by KO, nine losses and two draws. Oliveira’s last six fights have been at welterweight, fighting people much bigger than Hatton. His last light welterweight encounter was against none other than Ben Tackie in which he lost a twelve-round decision however a total of 2,729 punches were thrown during the fight, which is, according to CompuBox the third most punches thrown in a fight. And before that he beat Vince Phillips, a fight in which a total of 2,989 punches were thrown, the second most punches ever recorded according to CompuBox. Oliveira was going to come and throw a lot of leather and with Hatton’s cut problem the fight looked more risky than most thought.

A lot was being made of Oliveira’s age, some saying that Hatton is fighting another “dinosaur,” these people should be reminded that at thirty-six, Oliveira is only one year older than Kostya Tszyu. There was a lot at stake here for Hatton, a loss here would destroy all chances of a big fight with Tszyu, so he wasn’t going to take Oliveira lightly. And he didn’t. Hatton didn’t give the Massachusetts man a moment to breath, and pounced on him from the first bell. Some thought that Hatton would box like he did against Tackie and try to get through the fight with as little damage sustained as possible. Those people were silenced instantly. Hatton handed out a ten-round one-sided beating the like of which Oliveira had never felt before, even at welterweight. He later told Ricky that it was the hardest fight he had ever been in. Oliveira had never been stopped until he met Ricky Hatton. Commentators Adam Smith and Glen Mcrory both commented that Oliveira was a gamble as a warm up fight, but it was a gamble that paid off.

Later that night Miguel Cotto took on Randal Bailey in his first defense of the WBO title he won against Kelson Pinto. Hatton has said he is a fan of Cotto’s and admires his ability. Cotto is an option for Hatton next year, but if you ask any fighter what they would rather fight for, the IBF/linear champion or the WBO title they will always tell you they want the best, and at this moment in time Kostya Tszyu is the best in the light welterweight division, and that is why Hatton is gunning for him. Cotto is being championed at the moment but in my eyes he is only at the same stage in his career as Hatton. Bailey and Oliveira are both past there peaks and are similar standard, the only difference is that Hatton fought Oliveira to stay sharp before taking on Tszyu, Cotto fought Bailey as a title defense.

It has been a frustrating year for Hatton with three fights falling through back to back, he’ll be hoping his luck will change next year and he’ll finally get to show just how good he is by getting the fights he so desperately craves.

Ben Lynch can be reached at benjlynch@hotmail.com