the past,present and future of ricky hatton

these are my views on rickys carreer so far and what he needs to achieve to cement his legacy as a world class fighter and all time great.

Ricky hatton made his prodebut in 1997 colin mcAuley, ricky won the fight by TKO after McAuleys corner retired him after just the first round. Ricky then went on to take the domestic scene by storm and in his 11th fight he won the Vacant British Boxing Board of Control Central Area Light Welterweight Title, althogth this was a title that beared very little importance in the sport it took hatton just two more fights to win a more recognised title , the WBO inter-contenental light welterweight title in a bout against Dilion Carew for the vacant crown. From the 13 fights which it took Ricky to win the inter-contenental belt he stopped 10 of his oppenants within the distance, his explosive style combined with seemingly never ending stamina helped propel Ricky up the light welterweight rankings. By september 2000 Ricky had built up an undefeated record of 21 fights with 17 stoppages and added the WBA inter-contenental crown to the WBO title he had won the previous year.
In 2001 Hatton stopped Tony pep, a fighter who had taken the now p4p king floyd mayweather jr the distance 3 years earlier to win the vacant WBU title for the 140lb division. However the title was regarded by many to have very little importance in the sport and viewed it as a marketing tool for Frank warren. Ricky however went to defend the title 16 times against some strong opposistion such as he likes of ray oliveria, Vince Phillips and Ben Tackie. Then however Rickys big break came in 2005, he was matched up to fight IBF light welterweight champ Kosta Tszyu who had ruled the divison for years and losing only once before the fight with Hatton. At approximatley 3 am on 4th june 2005 Ricky hatton enetered the ring in front of 22,000 screaming, excited fans who had filled the MEN arean in Rickys hometown of Manchester. Ricky had become a local hero and his fans cheered him to victory as he battled and pressured Tsyzu for 11 rounds untill his corner decided he had enough and called an end to proceedings. Ricky had shown his boxing intelligance and not allowed Tszyu to get any leverage in his shots by staying close, Many questioned Hattons tactics and methods and branded him a dirty fighter, however he was crowned IBF light-welterweight champion of the world and Tszyu himself claimed he had lost to a brilliant fighter.
Rickys first defence of his new title was against Carlos Maussa an akward Columbian fighter who had beaten Vivian Harris to claim the WBA crown. Between the fights with tyszu and maussa however ricky was ingaged in a legal battle with Frank Warren and left the promoter and signed with Dennis Hobsons fight academy. Rickys first fight under Hobson started in a frustrating manner as he struggled to work out the style of the gangly Columbian, But eventually Rickys class showed and Maussa was dispatched by a perfectly placed left hook in the 9th round. After having won two world titles at 140lb Ricky decided that the big fights were no longer available at that weight for him and decided he would move up to welterweight following the lead of Floyd Mayweather. Rickys first and last fight at 147 lb was against Luis Collazo a tall,rangy southpaw who was believed to be a minimal threat to the British challenger.This did appaer to be the case when in the 1st round Hatton dropped Collazo with a goodleft hook, however Ricky faded through the fight and was considered very lucky to get away with a decision victory.
After the Collazo bout Ricky saw that maybe welterweight was not for him, he was not as explosive or strong as he had been at 140lb so moved back down and challenged Juan Urango for the IBF title he had first won from Tszyu in 2005. 20th january 2007 saw another unconvincing display from Hatton And although he won his 4th world title many people have began to question what the future holds for 'the hitman'.

well lets look at what the future could hold for Ricky Hatton

Jose Luis Castillo will be Rickys next big major challenge, perhaps on par with that of dethroning Tszyu. Castillo is a strong higly skilled fighter who has the ability to cause Ricky problems if he is not on his 'A-game'. If Ricky can get past Castillo then there are many options he could take and many fights that could be made.

my views on possible fights after the bout with JLC

Floyd Mayweather JR - the fight which ricky has claimed he has wanted all along, the main problem with this fight is the weight as i see it, ricky struggled at 147 and there is no way floyd will drop to 140 to fight hatton especially as he had just moved up to 154 in order to take on de la hoya.

Miguel Cotto - in my view the hardest fight out their for hatton and the one i would be least confident about him winning

Junior witter - has hounded hatton for the majority of his career. now junior has a world title he can seriously look to get a fight with hatton signed, the fight would be massive in britain but at current would not be favoured by the american tv network hbo due to witters lack of success in the states

comments greatly appreciated

cc#127 I hope you wrote that, and you didn't copy and paste it from some site... ;D

You know those are some real decent names there and yeah! hes cementing his boxing legacy amongst the British greats BUT not legends and or World Boxing Greats.....

At their best the fighters Hattons faced are C & B level fighters.... and 1 level A fighter.....

And I hope that after the JLC fight if he wins he has to follow it up with something good. But I really believe he wont.... :(

yes i did write it and it took me fooking ages >:mad

That's a copy and paste job if i ever saw one.

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Originally Posted by hitmanhatton

yes i did write it and it took me fooking ages >:mad

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Nicely done hitman.... :)

fuck off violent dimiese that was pure all my typing reaseaching fights etc and has taken th best part of 40 minutes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hitmanhatton

yes i did write it and it took me fooking ages >:mad

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Have a CC from me bud, good read.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hitmanhatton

fuck off violent dimiese that was pure all my typing reaseaching fights etc and has taken th best part of 40 minutes

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Heh, heh. Sensitive ain't we. I was just fucking with you. It's clearly not a copy and paste job. The bad spelling, spacing and indenting pretty much show it was all you.

i agree with you. at the moment cotto is probably the most dangerous fight for hatton out there. that or mosley (who is a name that has also been mentioned as a potential for hattons future). if he gets past castillo thte future is looking bright for ricky. loads of fights for him that i would love to see anyways.

I think the best Hatton can hope for is to get Cotto in a catch weight contest. He could add some decent names to his leger in between and maybe after but none of the same significance.

Of all the possibilities that have existed for Hatton over the last couple of years only Mayweather is dead in the water IMO. I think we all have to be realistic though and accept that they wont come back to back.

bump

I used to be a HUGE Hatton fan now I am not so high on the guy.....IMO he worked his A$$ off to become one of the sports best then once he got there was like...OK I made it let's just coast the rest of the way.....His fights have become boring hit and hold events....Doing just enough to win......Is he still winning yes but not giving it his all...Thats why I became such a Hatton fan in the first place...Ricky was a guy with little boxing skill that made up for it with his workrate and heart...I am afraid tha version of Hatton is tucked away some where...He still has it but why is he not using it?...

I reckon he did cut and paste it

Anyway here are my views on Ricky's ooptions after JLC


Floyd Mayweather JR - the fight which ricky has claimed he has wanted all along, the main problem with this fight is the weight as i see it, ricky struggled at 147 and there is no way floyd will drop to 140 to fight hatton especially as he had just moved up to 154 in order to take on de la hoya.

Miguel Cotto - in my view the hardest fight out their for hatton and the one i would be least confident about him winning

Junior witter - has hounded hatton for the majority of his career. now junior has a world title he can seriously look to get a fight with hatton signed, the fight would be massive in britain but at current would not be favoured by the american tv network hbo due to witters lack of success in the states


;)

I think the Mayweather fight has a chance of happening - after Oscar, Mayweather says he's retired in US but that doesn't mean worldwide. Think PBF will outpoint Oscar and Ricky will scrape home against JLC.

If the money's right what chances a fight at City of Manchester Stadium. That would be Ricky's dream - the thing is that would have to wait till next summer as I don't think MEN Arena is big enough for the interest a fight such as this would generate in Britain. Worry is that he takes a fight in spring and gets upset... :-\

It WOULD sell out Manchester stadium and be on a par with Benn Eubank II

To be a great Ricky needs fight such as Cotto,Margarito,Baldomir,Mayweather,even M'Baye and Witter and perhaps win a world belt and defend it a few times

I don't think you'll ever see Hatton in with Floyd, Cotto, Mosley, etc...that time has gone. He's not getting any better. And what realistic chance does he have of beating any of those guys at Welter? Slim at best.

If he beats Castillo he'll have one or two gimmes (they can always dig out no-names with decent looking credentials - Urango? Collazo?), then fight Witter who would have become a "big fight"...which is kinda ironic :-\