IBF Order Hatton to Face Ndou - Rabah Winner

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Hatton Ordered To Face Ndou-Rabah Winner


By Mark Vester

It was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that undefeated Ricky "Hitman" Hatton has been ordered by the IBF to defend his junior welterweight title against the winner of Sunday's IBF title elimination bout between Lovemore Ndou (44-8) and Naoufel Ben Rabah (24-2) at the State Sports Centre at Homebush Bay, Australia.

The IBF told Hatton that he must make a defense against the winner of Ndou-Rabah within 90-days. Hatton is already committed to a very anticipated June bout with Mexico's Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas.

Hatton will likely seek permission from the IBF to defend the title against Castillo, with the winner of Ndou-Rabah facing the winner. Both Ndou and Rabah were upset with the fact that Hatton was able to land an immediate shot at Urango, because they were the top two contenders in the rankings and Hatton was ranked at number 6 by the IBF when he dropped back down in weight to 140-pounds. The camps of both fighters have said that they will push for a bout with Hatton.

The worst case scenario has Hatton dropping the title to move forward with Castillo, a kery fight for Hatton's conquest of America.

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I really don't want to see another title vacated! >:(

I hope they give him permission to fight Castillo. But if it gets vacated it's just further evidence at the state of boxing at the minute. Too many titles, the rankings are a joke. Rabah got beat by the man Hatton just dismissed, yet he may become mandatory to the title. Witter and M'Baye are better than them!

that is a joke. hatton has got his own plan and he'l just vacate it if he has to. he's vacated titles before to pursue his own path and he won't want to but he'll just get rid if thats what it takes to fight castillo.

Waste of time, Hatton would destroy those two and everyone knows it. Least with Castillo we are gaurenteed a very very good fight with no easy outcome for either fighter. I just hope Hatton vacates the belt in order to persue the Castillo bout.

All anyone can do is just gape open-mouthed at the idiocy of some of these governing bodies. How can facing Castillo be a lesser fight than N'dou v Rabah? Surely his pedigree and previous fights should be considered in his ranking, rather than just what he's done in the past 6 months, or however these bodies figure out their rankings. The problem is that most of the time someone who fights one nobody a month for a year is going to be in a better position ranking wise than somebody who loses a tight decision against a superstar....there's just no sense. It seems as though the IBF are playing it so by the book that they have absolutely no interest in actually seeing the big fights made.

It just infuriates me so much. grrraaaaooooorrrrrrr

well, it says "it was REPORTED" so the IBF may not have said that for sure;

but wtf? ok fair enough people fight elimenators for a shot at the belt, can't argue with that. but its not as if hatton has won the belt and NOW said he wnats castillo next, fuck these two have basicaly agreed to fight in june months and months ago, going into the fight it was clear as fucking day the should they both win they would fight next, so why the fuck didn't the people at the IBF make it clear that he would have to defend his belt before he could fight castillo?

If this is true he needs to vacate

It would be interesting to see how the fook, these guys do their rankings.

forget about titles, he's won 4 differents in his last four fights and he's not got any credit for it. Its big names and "super-fights" that will win Hatton respect, and N'Dou and Rabah aint super fights.

Incidentally is it just me or does everyone accuse a fighter of being a pussy if they don't exclusively fight mega-fight-unifications fights every single time. Isn't the whole idea about those kinda fights that they're the exception rather than the rule, isn't that what makes them super in the first place???

Hatton goes Castillo > Witter then & 147lbs > Cotto and then Mayweather if he's still around. If he wins those first 3 fights he's in the mix P4P and has a concrete legacy no-one can take away. He beats Mayweather and he officially becomes God. ;D

This is a bit odd, look how the IBF has the rankings AFTER Hatton vs. Urango

CHAMPION : Juan Urango Colombia
Title won : Jan 20. 2007 Mandatory : Defended :

WBA : Soulemayne M'Baye France
WBC : Junior Witter England
WBO : Jose Torres Colombia

1 NOT RATED
2 Demetrius Hopkins United States
3 Lovemore Ndou Australia
4 Naoufel Ben Rabah Australia
5 Ricky Hatton England
6 Andreas Kotelnik Germany
7 Diego Corrales United States
8 Kendall Holt United States
9 Carlos Maussa
10 Eleazer Contreras United States
11 Paul Malignaggi United States
12 Randall Baily United States
13 Isaac Hlatshwayo South Africa
14 Rogelio Castaneda, Jr United States
15 Emmanuel Clotey United States

Phillip or lovemore Ndou?

Lovemore.

Phillip retired a few years back.

Ridiculous! Fooking sanctioning bodies! Fwock the titles! I want to see Hatton JLC,the titles don't mean anything in this scenario.

For god sake, they are never going to let Hatton keep one for more than 5 minutes are they?

Bastards they are,all the santioning bodies. We,as boxing fans,need to to do something about this! They are just money stealing,corrupt cock suckers whi want to rob us of all the fights which we want to see when it suits them! Fuckers! >:mad >:mad >:mad >:mad Ahem...Sorry :P ;D

These titles are all meaningless, especially for fighters who are already stars, like Hatton and Castillo. In any case, I'm almost positive the IBF will let Hatton keep his title for the Castillo fight. Not that it matters, because the winner of that fight shouldn't (and won't) waste his time fighting the Ben Rabah/Ndou winner anyway. I think the winner of Hatton/Castillo should move up to 147 immediately. Those two are the only good fighters at 140 right now.

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Originally Posted by shza

These titles are all meaningless, especially for fighters who are already stars, like Hatton and Castillo. In any case, I'm almost positive the IBF will let Hatton keep his title for the Castillo fight. Not that it matters, because the winner of that fight shouldn't (and won't) waste his time fighting the Ben Rabah/Ndou winner anyway. I think the winner of Hatton/Castillo should move up to 147 immediately. Those two are the only good fighters at 140 right now.

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Good points,agreed. After this fight,win lose or draw,Hatton is slightly stuck. Unless Corrales decides to fight at 140(which he shouldn't if he's sensible),Hatton can only....unify the titles at 140 I guess. I mean there are guys like Maligniaggi but that's not going to add alot to Hatton's desire to leave behind a legacy. So he could move back to 147 but if Cotto beats Margarito,which he could do so easily,I don't think Hatton would want anything to do with him either. As for JLC,he wants to retire after 5 more fights,if he loses this,he maay change his mind.

140 has good fighters there but they all need to prove themselves..Paulie,Torres,Holt etc.