Excellent Hatton article...hATTON@{147,WEIGHT AND SEE.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=6940&more=1

Hatton at 147: Weight and see

14.05.06 - by Kieran Redmond: Opinions about Hatton seem to go up and down faster than the Hitman`s weight. Before he fought Kostya Tzyu, Hatton was seen as overprotected and would be exposed at championship level. After beating Kostya and Maussa, many of the same people declared Hatton the cream of the crop and only behind Floyd Mayweather at 140 and 147. Now, after winning a close decision against the durable Collazo, many of the same fans are backtracking again and proclaiming that Hatton is overrated and would be in trouble against the next elite fighter he fights at either 140 or 147. All these viewpoints obviously do not tesselate so let us take a look at what made this the toughest win for Hatton so far and see just where he should go from here..

A good trainer should always know their fighter, and what they can and cannot do. Billy Graham knew that putting a 5 foot 6 Hatton who is primarily an inside fighter against a 5 foot 9 Collazo with a whopping 6 inch reach advantage could be a mistake. It obviously did not help the fact that Collazo is a southpaw, the last southpaw Hatton fought against was Eamon Magee and that was hardly a walk in the park either. All these factors did make the fight tough for Hatton but the biggest problem was predicted by Collazo himself several weeks before. When asked about how he felt fighting the champion at 140 Collazo responded that 147 is a completely different game, how right he was.

Even though Collazo did not utilize his jab as much as had been expected, when he did use it, it was quite effective at finding the target and slowing down the inward advance of his opponent. The fact that Hatton was fighting at a higher weight did slow him down a tad causing him to take more shots going in and making it harder for himn to get on the inside when Collazo opted to jab and move.

Collazo though, against most expectations decided to stand and trade with Hatton for most of the fight. Even more suprisingly the tall slimmer fighter held his own against the smaller Manchunian powerhouse. Hatton did not seem to have the decisive edge when it came to inside fighting that everyone though would be a foregone conclusion. Hatton is a very strong fighter at 140 and was one of the only fighters that the Aussie powerhouse Tzyu was never able to throw around like a rag doll. Collazo though seemed to be handling Hatton inside and repeatedly able to push the Hitman away from him when he got in close. The ability of Hatton to outmuscle his opponents on the inside seemed diminished at this weight class.

The lagest opponent Ricky had ever faced also did not seem to be significantly hurt by the body shots that Hatton banks on in his fights. The body shots that the Hitman rained in on the midsection of Collazo would surely have seriously compromised any 140 pound fighter. The New York native though seemed to eat them up and return the punishment throughout the 12 rounds. The cumulative punching of Hatton seemed to have less effect against this bigger, more durable foe.

Maybe Collazo did not feel the full effect of the body punches of the Hitman because there were less punches thrown by the Hitman in this fight. Hatton as a pressure fighter depends on a high workrate, he has lost very few rounds in the last few years. A high workrate obviously depends on a good level of stamina. Unfortunately this also seemed to suffer slightly as Ricky, carrying 7 extra pounds on his frame, looked exhausted between rounds. Some of his wide open swings which missed Collazo could also be explained by reduced stamina causing his coordination to go and his shots to become less fluid. Missing such swings could not have helped his stamina either. This extra weight reduced his stamina and workrate.

Ricky has a good defense but not an excellent one. He will eat a few shots going in in order to land his own tasty punches on the inside. He has taken alot of jabs at 140 but Collazo seemed to have more sting in his jab. The left hook of this Southpaw also found the target quite often. At the end of the fight, the cumulative damage done by the extra 7 pounds of Collazo showed the face of Hatton more swollen and marked up than I have ever seen it before. The 12th round was also a point of concern in that Collazo had Hatton staggered and the most hurt I have seen Hatton in a fight, more than the Magee knockdown, this from a Welterweight with only 12 KOs on his resume. Ricky has a fighting style which is likely to see him take much more significant punishment when fighting bigger men.

It is testament to his determination that Hatton was able to fight his way to a hard fought and very narrow win. This was his first fight against a natural welterweight. Not only was Collazo all wrong for Hatton stylistically, fighting at a higher weight hindered his gameplan. It decreased his advantages, strength, stamina and bodypunching. And it increased his disadvantages, vulnerability to jabs and the ability to take hard shots.

Unlike some would argue, this does not mean that Hatton would stand no chance against the likes of Cotto, Gatti and Floyd Mayweather. We have weight divisions in boxing for a reason. Collazo is a natural welterweight meaning that he has fought at that weight for so long he is well acclimatized to all the conditions of this higher weight. Mayweather and Gatti started at super featherweight. Mayweather has only recently moved up to welterweight, and Gatti has only recently moved up to Welter weight for the second time, Gatti only previously fought at welter once in 2001 against DelaHoya. Cotto, to the best of my knowledge, has fought his entire career at light welter. I would not expect Cotto, Gatti and Mayweather to take body shots from Haton the way Collazo did. I would not expect those three to out muscle Hatton on the inside either. I am neither arguing that Collazo is a better fighter than PBF, Gatti and Cotto; nor am I arguing if Hatton would beat Gatti, PBF and Cotto. What I am arguing is that those three fighters would not have the same advantages over Hatton that Collazo displayed. Arguing that those 3 could beat Hatton based on this fight makes no sense since styles do make fights.

Comparing this entrance into 147 by Hatton with that by Floyd is also fruitless. Hatton fought a natural welter weight on a winning streak who legitimately held a world title. That is more than can be said for the last 2 fights Maywether has had at 147. However, I do feel that Floyd has shown better stock at welterweight so far. Maywether has a boxing stlye that, unlike Hatton, does not involve trying to outmuscle the larger individuals at 147 and certainly does not involve eating leather from these guys in order to get on the inside.

So where does Hatton go from here? He may be able to grow into the weight as he himself exclaimed he needed to do in the post fight interview. If this is not the case then Hatton has two options. Option one, remain at 147 and get pummelled. Oscar was sensational at 147 and great at 154 but he was terible at middleweight. Similarly, Vassily Jirov was a force to be reckoned with at cruiserweight, yet he has been beaten by mediocre opposition at heavyweight. Whatever Hatton does there are two fighter he should avoid like the plague for the time being or until he feels better fighting at 147. The first is Oscar, who would probably want to fight Hatton at 154 which would be really asking alot from a guy who has not yet adapted to 147. The second is Margarito, who has fought at both 154 and 147 but says that his favourite weight is 147. In the meantime fights with Gatti and PBF could still be made at 147 or Hatton could move down and fight Cotto, Castillo or Coralles. Hatton stated on the radio, after the fight that he is interested in fighting the winner of Corralles Castillo 3, adding that he will take great fights at either 140 or 147 so maybe he is considering going down to 140. To end on a bad joke Hatton will just have to weight and see.