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

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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.

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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 :-\

I think Ricky gets beat if he fight Witter i think Witter stops him late prob round 10.

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

I think Ricky gets beat if he fight Witter i think Witter stops him late prob round 10.

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your joking arnt ya. witter is shit. he does his switch hitting rubbish to much and he does it badly. he might give hatton problems but he no way packs enough of a punch to stop hatton.

Look what Witters punches did to the granite head of N'dou. If he catches you right you're in trouble, don't matter who you are.

I think Witter-Hatton is a much closer fight now than it was a couple of years ago.

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

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

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People that copy and paste really get on my nerves. >:mad

Anyway, here's my take on it:


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

;)

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

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

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Why does he need M'Baye and Baldomir or even Margarito?

He's won 4 belts and to defend them he would have to fight fighters in the calibre of M'Baye and N'doe etc.....which doesn't go down to well with his critics.

If the Mayweather fight is never made, it's not to do with weight...it's to do with $$$$.

Y'see, I'm positive Ricky would fight Mayweather at 147. Ricky would still outweigh Floyd by 8 or 9 lbs come fight night (if Floyds recent fight night weights are correct - circa 149). Floyd chooses to utilise his speed rather than increase bulk. I don't even think he'll be much bigger when he fights Oscar...

I think the key to get Maywether is to hope DLH beats him. He might be a bit more reasonable with his demands then...











....maybe not.

If Eamon Magee can drop him Witter can even Collazo had him out on his feet in the 12th

bollocks ricky's got a solid chin, one of the best in the business. Did you not see the collazo fight? Ricky was walking through shot after shot. Did you see some of those right hands Kostya Tszyu landed on him early in their fight? hahaha yeah coz you probably think Kostya was shot and that Junior Witter hits harder than he ever did anyway.

Its not like the Eamonn Magee knockdown even shook him up that badly, and Magee was a quality fighter back in the day too I'd pick the Magee who fought Hatton to beat Junior Witter anyday.

Hatton's career is pretty good I think. He's got a lot of bums on his resume, but for every Carlos Vilches and Joe Hutchinson there's quality mixed in like Eamonn Magee, Ben Tackie, Vince Phillips, Ray Oliveira and Kostya Tszyu. You can't fluke victories like that, if Hatton was just hype he'd have been exposed long before now.

And I also reckon the Mayweather - Hatton fight can happen. If Hatton impresses against Castillo, which he might coz that fight WILL be a war, he'll have real momentum behind him and Floyd wont be able to ignore it. He's already calling out the winner, if hebeats Castillo well those calls will get stronger. If Floyd wants my respect he should take on Hatton and Cotto, they are the fights that need to be made. If he wants to go down as P4P all time great he can't have those questioning wether or not Cotto or Hatton could've beaten him.

If Ricky was that good would'nt he fight Witter just to shut him up Witter as been calling him out for about 6 year bad mouthing him and disrespecting him if it was me in Rickys position i would want to knock him out Witter has the WBC title now so its another title for ricky to give up if he wins. the fight kept getting promised to us by Frank Warren but it never came off why.I'll tell you why because Frank did'nt want Witter to crash the Hatton party he was making to much money off him He knew Witter had a good chance of beating him.

your telling me you'd rather see Hatton - Witter than Hatton - Cotto or Hatton - Mayweather? Hahahaha jesus. Got news for you mate Junior Witter is BORING! He's dull. He can't fill a school gym when he fights. The American networks dont wanna touch him. He cruises rounds and does nothing in fights. You must be crazy if you think Witter would provide us with the sort of entertainment those fights would. Ricky is a NAME, he needs to fight big fights he's already pissed about too much with Urango's and Maussa's, he lost out on a fight with Arturo Gatti, he doesn't need witter. But witter needs him big time, thats the only fight witter will ever be at which people want to see! I mean you can't get much money sellnig 350 tickets in Barnsley leisure centre!

Besides Witter isn't all that good. He's lazy as fuck, he takes rounds off and coasts all the time. He won't get chance to do any of that shit against Ricky Hatton, Hatton will be tearing into him like a terrier the full 12 rounds. Witter don't like that, he'd just get on his bike and pot-shot to avoid getting brawled up by ricky.

i think X makes some interesting observations

Sovereign i would love to see Hatton v Cotto or Mayweather but can you see it happening i just think Witter as the beating of him i think Ricky will go down as fighting good fighters but not the best fighters Kostya was old he had one fight in 23 month before Hatton and he held for first 5 round

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

If Eamon Magee can drop him Witter can even Collazo had him out on his feet in the 12th

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Does that mean Trinidad was shit just cos Lueshing to name one dropped him?

Tito was a few classes above Hatton lets see what happens when he fights a good young fresh fighter like a Cotto rather than fighters with good names who are just past it who has he fought apart from an old Kostya Tsyzu who had only fought once in 23 month

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

If Ricky was that good would'nt he fight Witter just to shut him up Witter as been calling him out for about 6 year bad mouthing him and disrespecting him if it was me in Rickys position i would want to knock him out Witter has the WBC title now so its another title for ricky to give up if he wins. the fight kept getting promised to us by Frank Warren but it never came off why.I'll tell you why because Frank did'nt want Witter to crash the Hatton party he was making to much money off him He knew Witter had a good chance of beating him.

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Witter the sprinter brings nothing to the table. He's a wanna be Haseem Hamed. But no where near as good. I actually agree with Hatton for avoiding this clown. Facing Witter is a step backwards for Hatton. Witter is one of boxings most overrated fighters. I think Hatton would destroy him. Hatton's style is all wrong for Witter. Witter damn near pulled a hamstring muscle running from Judah when he faced him. And Judah is not the pressure fighter that Hatton is. I think this fight would go 3 rounds at best.

Witters got a top chin on him. He'd hear the final bell no doubt, and be gratefull for it.

its not his chin that'll get checked, its his heart mate. Once Ricky's pounded his ribs to dust for 10 hard rounds we'll see how much fight Junior Witter has in him. He doesn't like hard fights doesn't Junior, it fights at his own pace, and Ricky just will not let him get away with that. He'll swarm all over Witters arse and Witter won't be able to deal with it.

One sided UD or late stoppage by the referee when Witter can't take any more beating.

Did you watch Hatton v Urango He ran out of puff and kept holding punch grab punch grab thats what he did for last 4 rounds he will get exposed trust me ;)

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

Did you watch Hatton v Urango He ran out of puff and kept holding punch grab punch grab thats what he did for last 4 rounds he will get exposed trust me ;)

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Its called fighting with flu and rib injuries sweetheart ;)



Sad click im afraid dear..

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Originally Posted by Sovereign

its not his chin that'll get checked, its his heart mate. Once Ricky's pounded his ribs to dust for 10 hard rounds we'll see how much fight Junior Witter has in him

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I dont see Witter having any problems with Hattons body attack. Witter is supremely fit and will have no trouble running away for three quarters of a fight.

to be fair though witter has had plenty of practice of running so shouldnt be too hard for him i agree

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Originally Posted by Tito_BHB

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

Did you watch Hatton v Urango He ran out of puff and kept holding punch grab punch grab thats what he did for last 4 rounds he will get exposed trust me ;)

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Its called fighting with flu and rib injuries sweetheart ;)



Sad click im afraid dear..

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Trust me those rib injuries are going to get much much worse. Castillo is coming for that rib cage.

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Originally Posted by Violent Demise

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Originally Posted by Tito_BHB

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

Did you watch Hatton v Urango He ran out of puff and kept holding punch grab punch grab thats what he did for last 4 rounds he will get exposed trust me ;)

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Its called fighting with flu and rib injuries sweetheart ;)



Sad click im afraid dear..

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Trust me those rib injuries are going to get much much worse. Castillo is coming for that rib cage.

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How well do you think Castillo will carry his power up to 140?

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Originally Posted by ono

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Originally Posted by Violent Demise

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Originally Posted by Tito_BHB

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Originally Posted by tysonbruno

Did you watch Hatton v Urango He ran out of puff and kept holding punch grab punch grab thats what he did for last 4 rounds he will get exposed trust me ;)

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Its called fighting with flu and rib injuries sweetheart ;)



Sad click im afraid dear..

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Trust me those rib injuries are going to get much much worse. Castillo is coming for that rib cage.

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How well do you think Castillo will carry his power up to 140?

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Very well.

Castillo will be good at this weight, the power will be there make no mistake.

Ricky's body hasn't let him down in the past, and he's fought much better guys than Juan Urango without needing to hold for the last 4 rounds, but Castillo is a good body puncher. The problem is if Castillo goes to the body he'll leave himself open to the body, and there's not many body punchers out there as devastating as Ricky Hatton.

Mark my words this one will be WAR!!!

Oh yeah Junior Witter would just turn up for the payday, avoid all form of contact with ricky by running like a bitch and lose a lop-sided decision on points. There's no way Junior could go toe-to-toe with Hatton, it'd be suicide.