Ricky Hatton Conference Call.

Ricky Hatton was in an extremely relaxed mood earlier this evening, taking questions from various reporters around the globe. The questions came thick and fast as we gauged Ricky Hatton’s mindset ahead of the biggest fight of his career. Topics ranged from the possibility of crowd violence and, much to Ricky’s amusement, an American reporter querying Ricky on whether he was a “Man U” fan or not. I managed to get in a couple of questions of my own. Although, the embarrassment of my correcting the operator on my name and affiliation being met with stony silence killed the moment slightly. My first question to Ricky was in regard to which tactics he planned to employ. I wondered if he would attempt to set his now trademark furious pace from the offset or if he would perhaps be quieter in the early rounds, as he took a look at what he was facing.

“Well, I don’t want to give away my tactics, too much, but I think I have to be a lot, lot more careful and cagier than what I’ve sometimes done in recent fights. Sometimes I have left myself open to silly shots, silly counters, but I think you’ll find that when I have done that it’s been against guys who didn’t have the punching power to hurt me. You know, even though Ray Oliveira was a very respected name and great fighter, he’s not known for his punching power. Likewise, people like Mikhail Krivolapov, who was WBC top five ranked at the time. I mean, sometimes, you know, when you fight certain people there’s fighters you can take chances with and there’s fighters you can’t take chances with. And obviously Kostya Tszyu is one of them. But I feel that whenever I’ve boxed a big puncher like Ben Tackie. I think I barely lost a round and he barely laid a glove on me, to be fair, so I can do it when I want to. There’s certain fights when I need to and obviously I’m gonna need to against Kostya.”

Read on for more questions to Ricky Hatton from our very own James Macdonald representing SaddoBoxing.com at this International conference call.

I also had the opportunity to ask Ricky Hatton about the weight gain prior to his training camp, which was the source of much debate among forum-goers and press alike. As most who have followed Ricky’s career will know, the weight gain has almost been part of his preparation, added motivation, if you will, to work himself back into shape. I wondered if the extra weight gain this time around was a conscious decision, so that he would have to work that much harder in the build-up.

“No, not really, it’s just the norm for me. I get in the ring on fight night at about eleven-stone-two-pounds, which is very, very big for light welterweight. So, generally, when I’m out of training, I tend to walk about at about twelve-and-a-half stone. That’s like the norm for me. With me being the short, stocky type, sometimes us five-foot-seven pocket rockets can’t hold the weight as comfortable as someone who’s maybe five-foot-ten, five-foot-eleven. It tends to show a little bit more. That’s just the norm for me. You know, with my training, in the first few weeks I work on getting my weight down and getting my weight into a position that when I’m doing my intense training and the training intensifies that I can eat the appropriate and the correct food. To be honest, in the last three weeks people in England have been worried about my weight, thinking that I’ve been either too right or that I’ve peaked too soon or there’s a danger of me peaking too soon, but I’ve did it just right. And everyone else seems to be worried, but I’m not worried and my nutritionist isn’t worried and my trainer isn’t worried, so I can sort of live with that, to be honest.”

Unfortunately, due to the amount of reporters waiting got ask questions, I was only able to put those two questions to Ricky. Other choice quotes were as follows:

On his frustration at waiting so long for the big fights:

“I’d reached the stage where I was defending my WBU title in Manchester and beating, you know, decent enough names, but obviously not the cream of the crop, if you like, in the junior welterweight division…”

“Once I’d reached a certain amount of fights, I thought, “Now’s the time I should be challenging the top guys out there.’ I should have been fighting Kelson Pinto for the WBO title and that fight unfortunately fell through and then obviously Miguel Cotto fought Pinto and looked fantastic. And I felt a little bit aggrieved. He stole a little bit of my limelight, if you like…”

On the 2am start time:

“In the previous two weeks, I’ve been doing my roadwork at 2 o’clock in the morning. And, to be honest, the first three or four days was a little bit awkward and a bit tiring until my body-clock got into the swing of things and got used to it. This is my second week now of doing my roadwork activity. To be honest, it just feels like second nature. And also this week I’m gonna go do a couple of gym sessions…”

On the future should he defeat Tszyu:

“I think what makes it more exciting is what further could be on the line at the end of it. You know, fights with Gatti or Mayweather, Vivian Harris, Cotto. In securing a victory against Kostya Tszyu, obviously you’re not only winning the IBF belt and being universally recognized as number one ranked, you’re also guaranteeing a shot at one of those guys…”

On having home advantage:

“I think it could be an advantage, but obviously a very, very slight one. You know, Kostya Tszyu is so experienced. And if anybody can deal with going into somebody’s backyard, I think he can. When he boxed Julio Cesar Chavez, it was a bit of a partisan crowd with a lot of Mexican following in the crowd. He more than dealt with that. But I think my crowd’s a little bit different. I’ve been to fights in The States. I’ve been to numerous big fights and the atmosphere is definitely different. The atmosphere at a Ricky Hatton fight tends to be more what you would relate to a soccer match. It can be very, very vocal, a lot of singing, very, very passionate. It certainly is different. It maybe could give me an advantage. I think you’d be a very, very tough man for it not to affect you. I think if that does give me an advantage, it will only be very slight.”

On having to come to America to make himself a household name:

“I think if I beat Kostya Tszyu, everybody on this side and the other side of the water will certainly know of Ricky Hatton. But yeah, coming to Las Vegas and coming to The States is something I absolutely crave. To be honest, I love fighting in my home town of Manchester. Who wouldn’t love fighting in their own town, bearing in mind the support? At first, Las Vegas was mentioned as a possible venue, then Sydney. And unfortunately it ended up being in Manchester, where we get nothing but rain. I think I’d have much sooner boxed in Las Vegas or in Sydney. You know, it sounds a lot more appetizing than soaking wet Manchester. But no, I think if I beat Kostya Tszyu, I wouldn’t need to go to America to prove myself. I think I’ll have more than done that. But it has been a dream of mine ever since the day I laced on gloves to fight in The United States, top the bill in The United States, in places like Vegas…”

Writer’s note: On the whole, Ricky seemed relaxed throughout the call, laughing frequently and taking the questions in his stride. From what I gathered, Ricky is somewhat better known in The States than I first thought and the response from the American press was very positive. Should Hatton beat Tszyu, this could well be the shot in the arm British boxing needs. With Harrison-Brodie being shown live on ShoBox on the eve of the big one, our fighters are getting some good exposure. Hopefully our fighters put on a show to remember and leave them craving more.

James MacDonald can be reached at ac009b5460@blueyonder.co.uk