Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan View Post
Hatton was NEVER world-class. Hatton had a "perfect-storm" type of moment against Kostya Tszyu, and the snowball (hype) began rolling down the hill, gathering size and momentum as it rolled along. Hatton himself got caught up in it, and declared he was fighting for world's p4p both against Mayweather and against Pac, both of whom brought him back to his senses. (Well... in Pac's case, he actually got separated from his senses). In reality, had he earned both of those shots? Probably not.

Loving a fighter, and insisting he's world-class when he's not, are two completely different things. Nothing against Hatton the person, he was/is very engaging. He may have lost his humility somewhere along the line, but that's understandable when you've got an entire nation telling you you're the best in the world.
I think that is going a bit far, he was world class alright, he just didn't continue on as expected after the Tszyu fight and as i mentioned in my earlier post that fight took a lot out of him. Saying Hatton was not world class is like saying neither was Ken Norton, George Chuvalo, Esteban De Jesus, Rodrigo Valdez, Edwin Rosario, Rafael Herrera, Miguel Angel Gonzalez etc all of whom were champions with one version of the belt or fought A list legends and lost. (They were all world class fighters, any top 1 or 2 contender is) Hatton lost 2 fights against two super champions, perhaps the Pacquaio knockout has clouded people's judgement of him. Many a great champion has suffered serious knockout losses Zarate V Gomez, Gomez V Sanchez, Arguello V Pryor, Frazier v Foreman, Foster was blasted out by both Ali and Frazier does this relegate them to average pugs? Hatton was world class for a while and just met his match with PBF and Pacman, the pity is he didn't look after himself as well as he should've. Gone at age 30 proves that point.