How good was Rick Hatton?

[Taffturner]

Wat a joke?!? hatton only fell short against the two best (then and now) p4p on the planet, hatton always chased the best and gav it 110% he also produced a number of great fights and ko's so i dunno how he can be cosidered boaring?? Ok he was a piss can out the ring and probley fell short of elite because of it, but even so i think hatton had a great career and should recieve respect. For it!!

He wasnt very good. Ricky was just a contender level fighter.

Only reason he was so popular was because of his charisma and frank warrens promoting ability.



ricky hatton was a boring fighter and he wasnt that good.

[Rantcatrat]

Hatton was a proven great fighter for his day.

He was good enough to become the lineal lightwelter champion, P4P ranked by America's Ring Magazine, be paid millions by America's HBO TV company and be voted the "fighter of the year" by the boxing writers association of America.

How many foreigners achieve those accolades in America? Exactly. Fact.

Ricky Hatton was a very good fighter. If he makes it to the Hall of Fame it will be because of his international popularity as Fenster pointed out above, not his in-ring accomplishments. Boiled to its core, his career proved that he was a solid single division fighter, as evidenced by the lineal super lightweight belt he gained for beating Kosta Tszyu. He missed a couple of good junior welterweights in Miguel Cotto and Junior Witter. He also defended his title against a few good boxers in Juan Urango, Carlos Maussa and Paulie Malignaggi. He lost when he stepped up to the elite, ATG great level against Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Measured against other recent British greats, I would put him below Lennox Lewis, Joe Calzaghe and probably Amir Khan, depending on how his career develops.

I admire Ricky Hatton for going out on his shield, for daring to be great, even if he fell a tad bit short.

Here's a good summary of Ricky Hatton's career as measured against all time: Measured Against All Time - Ricky Hatton - Boxing News

[Master]

Ricky could be rated higher than Joe Galzaghe, because he did not wait too long with Warren, who would have been happy for Ricky to defend his IBO title against journeyman fighters and make shed loads of money. There is no Sven Ottke in Ricky’s closet, Witter does not count and Cotto moved up in weight to allow the fight from coming off. Ricky took risks going up to welterweight and Joe did not until very late in his career. If Ricky manoeuvred his career more cautiously he could have retired undefeated too

[Mr140]

Hattons skill level was no were near Calzaghes to be honest the best fighter to come out of the Uk beside Lennox Lewis. Hatton resume i think is worse then Calzaghes i mean Kt is no Bernard Hopkins.

[p4pking]

Ricky could be rated higher than Joe Galzaghe, because he did not wait too long with Warren, who would have been happy for Ricky to defend his IBO title against journeyman fighters and make shed loads of money. There is no Sven Ottke in Ricky’s closet, Witter does not count and Cotto moved up in weight to allow the fight from coming off. Ricky took risks going up to welterweight and Joe did not until very late in his career. If Ricky manoeuvred his career more cautiously he could have retired undefeated too

I don't agree with a single thing you said there aside from the fact that Hatton jumped ship with Warren, which is indeed to his credit. Hatton was very good, but nowhere near as good as Calzaghe, nor did he achieve as much even despite much better management. You could easily assume that if Calzaghe had Hatton's marketability(why he didn't is beyond me), he would have also retired with a much higher profile in America. For Hatton to have retired undefeated he would've clearly had to avoid Mayweather and Pacquiao. Had he not fought those two men, even despite losing so badly, his legacy would pale even moreso in comparison with Calzaghes. It would have been no different than had Calzaghe not fought Kessler and Hopkins. Instead, the difference is that Joe won those fights
And to say that there is no Sven Ottke in Ricky's closet, and that Witter doesn't count is purely ludicrous. Witter was MUCH more of a threat to Hatton and a much more lucrative fight than Ottke to Calzaghe, obviously. That would have been easy as hell to make in the UK and Hatton could have taken almost the whole purse.

[ono]

Ricky could be rated higher than Joe Galzaghe, because he did not wait too long with Warren, who would have been happy for Ricky to defend his IBO title against journeyman fighters and make shed loads of money. There is no Sven Ottke in Ricky’s closet, Witter does not count and Cotto moved up in weight to allow the fight from coming off. Ricky took risks going up to welterweight and Joe did not until very late in his career. If Ricky manoeuvred his career more cautiously he could have retired undefeated too

I don't agree with a single thing you said there aside from the fact that Hatton jumped ship with Warren, which is indeed to his credit. Hatton was very good, but nowhere near as good as Calzaghe, nor did he achieve as much even despite much better management. You could easily assume that if Calzaghe had Hatton's marketability(why he didn't is beyond me), he would have also retired with a much higher profile in America. For Hatton to have retired undefeated he would've clearly had to avoid Mayweather and Pacquiao. Had he not fought those two men, even despite losing so badly, his legacy would pale even moreso in comparison with Calzaghes. It would have been no different than had Calzaghe not fought Kessler and Hopkins. Instead, the difference is that Joe won those fights
And to say that there is no Sven Ottke in Ricky's closet, and that Witter doesn't count is purely ludicrous. Witter was MUCH more of a threat to Hatton and a much more lucrative fight than Ottke to Calzaghe, obviously. That would have been easy as hell to make in the UK and Hatton could have taken almost the whole purse.

Apparently Warren had quite a lot of profile raising offers which he presented to Calzaghe, but Calzaghe didn't want them. I think in his book, Joe said that it either never interested him or he didn't have the confidence to go through with stuff like that.

[Master]

Ricky could be rated higher than Joe Galzaghe, because he did not wait too long with Warren, who would have been happy for Ricky to defend his IBO title against journeyman fighters and make shed loads of money. There is no Sven Ottke in Ricky’s closet, Witter does not count and Cotto moved up in weight to allow the fight from coming off. Ricky took risks going up to welterweight and Joe did not until very late in his career. If Ricky manoeuvred his career more cautiously he could have retired undefeated too

I don't agree with a single thing you said there aside from the fact that Hatton jumped ship with Warren, which is indeed to his credit. Hatton was very good, but nowhere near as good as Calzaghe, nor did he achieve as much even despite much better management. You could easily assume that if Calzaghe had Hatton's marketability(why he didn't is beyond me), he would have also retired with a much higher profile in America. For Hatton to have retired undefeated he would've clearly had to avoid Mayweather and Pacquiao. Had he not fought those two men, even despite losing so badly, his legacy would pale even moreso in comparison with Calzaghes. It would have been no different than had Calzaghe not fought Kessler and Hopkins. Instead, the difference is that Joe won those fights
And to say that there is no Sven Ottke in Ricky's closet, and that Witter doesn't count is purely ludicrous. Witter was MUCH more of a threat to Hatton and a much more lucrative fight than Ottke to Calzaghe, obviously. That would have been easy as hell to make in the UK and Hatton could have taken almost the whole purse.

Apparently Warren had quite a lot of profile raising offers which he presented to Calzaghe, but Calzaghe didn't want them. I think in his book, Joe said that it either never interested him or he didn't have the confidence to go through with stuff like that.

Ricky Hatton beat a great champion in Kostya on a great night for British boxing. Joe beat Eubanks at short notice and then fought poor fighters for 10 years. Ricky unified some of the titles where possible including a weight up, Joe fought his mandatory’s and Ottke’s left overs never really taking a chance until the end of his career.

Ricky did not have to fight Floyd at welterweight, especially after struggling at the weight but he took the chance. Joe was very good but Ricky should not be punished for taking on the best and coming short. Would you want to see Ricky v Floyd or Pac Man than Witter? No chance.

Joe would have beaten Ottke but did not take the chance, Joe may have lost to Roy Jones at light heavy but never took the opportunity.

[Mr140]

Ricky with all his fights still does not have the same amount of good wins that Calzaghe has. I mean Bernard beats out anything Hatton has. Then you have Kessler which is better then anything Ricky besides his win over kt. I mean say what you want about Calzaghe but he was far more skilled. Also has better wins under his belt Jones was Lhw and no one was travling either way dont blame him much. Anyhow there is no real thing that Hatton has over Calzaghe when it comes to the record books.

[shza]

Ricky could be rated higher than Joe Galzaghe, because he did not wait too long with Warren, who would have been happy for Ricky to defend his IBO title against journeyman fighters and make shed loads of money. There is no Sven Ottke in Ricky’s closet, Witter does not count and Cotto moved up in weight to allow the fight from coming off. Ricky took risks going up to welterweight and Joe did not until very late in his career. If Ricky manoeuvred his career more cautiously he could have retired undefeated too

I don't agree with a single thing you said there aside from the fact that Hatton jumped ship with Warren, which is indeed to his credit. Hatton was very good, but nowhere near as good as Calzaghe, nor did he achieve as much even despite much better management. You could easily assume that if Calzaghe had Hatton's marketability(why he didn't is beyond me), he would have also retired with a much higher profile in America. For Hatton to have retired undefeated he would've clearly had to avoid Mayweather and Pacquiao. Had he not fought those two men, even despite losing so badly, his legacy would pale even moreso in comparison with Calzaghes. It would have been no different than had Calzaghe not fought Kessler and Hopkins. Instead, the difference is that Joe won those fights
And to say that there is no Sven Ottke in Ricky's closet, and that Witter doesn't count is purely ludicrous. Witter was MUCH more of a threat to Hatton and a much more lucrative fight than Ottke to Calzaghe, obviously. That would have been easy as hell to make in the UK and Hatton could have taken almost the whole purse.

Apparently Warren had quite a lot of profile raising offers which he presented to Calzaghe, but Calzaghe didn't want them. I think in his book, Joe said that it either never interested him or he didn't have the confidence to go through with stuff like that.

Ricky Hatton beat a great champion in Kostya on a great night for British boxing. Joe beat Eubanks at short notice and then fought poor fighters for 10 years. Ricky unified some of the titles where possible including a weight up, Joe fought his mandatory’s and Ottke’s left overs never really taking a chance until the end of his career.

Ricky did not have to fight Floyd at welterweight, especially after struggling at the weight but he took the chance. Joe was very good but Ricky should not be punished for taking on the best and coming short. Would you want to see Ricky v Floyd or Pac Man than Witter? No chance.

Joe would have beaten Ottke but did not take the chance, Joe may have lost to Roy Jones at light heavy but never took the opportunity.

Calzaghe was more protected and dodged the big fights, instead waiting for those guys to get past their primes (especially jones - that fight was 100% meaningless). I also thought Hopkins won their fight.

But I don't know how you can possibly deny that Calzaghe was just the more talented fighter, both technically and in terms of raw athleticism. Difference in class.