Welcome back ricky....

[THE PHILOSOPHER]

I have no problem with the mayweather outcome for the dude whining about chestnuts, however it is pretty clear cortez played his part! Such is boxing...

Stop hating on the hitman, he's a legend.

[AdamGB]

Hey look... Having the balls to get in with floyd and pac took balls... Nobody is being retarded enough to say otherwise?

My gripe is that I believe he could have beaten pac... Watch the first round, he looks like he might get on top at some point, he's walking pac down and applying educated pressure... Then BHAM, pac clips him and instead of shaking it off he gets pissed and boxing goes out the window. I suspect, had he not had so much hype about being some sort of ungodly pressure fighting machine that he may have recomposed himself, not taken the battering that he did in the rest of the 1st and then who knows? Maybe not end up a sitting duck for that monstorous shot in the second.

If I thought he had no chance at all, then I wouldn't critique him would I?

I think after the Tyzu fight he was misstrained - the focus just on conditioning (he knew this himself, why do you think he ended up leaving graham?), not developing his skills... Which had bu no means peaked lol.

He had the footspeed to trouble floyd in terms of ring generalship, just bothing else... Had he had a bit more in his toolbox he would have at least made it the full 12.

So no... I don't think he 'was a fool for thinking he could beat those guys'. Don't fet it twisted, his lifestyle and the hype he was given stopped reaching his true potential in my eyes... and that is frustrating as a BOXING FAN.

I have no problem with the mayweather outcome for the dude whining about chestnuts, however it is pretty clear cortez played his part! Such is boxing...

Stop hating on the hitman, he's a legend.

You'll hear no complaints about the likes of Vann being lax with Hatton for hitting and holding or clinching excessivley though, such is boxing...

[Beanz]

Hey look... Having the balls to get in with floyd and pac took balls... Nobody is being retarded enough to say otherwise?

My gripe is that I believe he could have beaten pac... Watch the first round, he looks like he might get on top at some point, he's walking pac down and applying educated pressure... Then BHAM, pac clips him and instead of shaking it off he gets pissed and boxing goes out the window. I suspect, had he not had so much hype about being some sort of ungodly pressure fighting machine that he may have recomposed himself, not taken the battering that he did in the rest of the 1st and then who knows? Maybe not end up a sitting duck for that monstorous shot in the second.

If I thought he had no chance at all, then I wouldn't critique him would I?

I think after the Tyzu fight he was misstrained - the focus just on conditioning (he knew this himself, why do you think he ended up leaving graham?), not developing his skills... Which had bu no means peaked lol.

He had the footspeed to trouble floyd in terms of ring generalship, just bothing else... Had he had a bit more in his toolbox he would have at least made it the full 12.

So no... I don't think he 'was a fool for thinking he could beat those guys'. Don't fet it twisted, his lifestyle and the hype he was given stopped reaching his true potential in my eyes... and that is frustrating as a BOXING FAN.

I have no problem with the mayweather outcome for the dude whining about chestnuts, however it is pretty clear cortez played his part! Such is boxing...

Stop hating on the hitman, he's a legend.

You'll hear no complaints about the likes of Vann being lax with Hatton for hitting and holding or clinching excessivley though, such is boxing...

Great post. I am not sure if Ricky could ever have beaten Floyd or Manny. Even if he had taken better care of himself between fights. He would have been a different person and all the variables involved with that may well have meant the fire and belief he had would not have burned so bright. It sounds trite but a huge part of his attraction was that every man persona, however bad an example that was, and however detrimental to his health such behaviour was, it brought in many fans who before watching Hatton would not have even described themselves as casual fans. His feet were always good and he had a pretty sound understanding of how to get an opponent to open up or be drawn into his kind of fight but there was like you say a ceiling on that, a limit that would prevent him getting to the very top without embracing more technical attributes and aspects into his style.

Having the following that he did helped him enormously in providing the belief drive and confidence that in some ways meant he actually overachieved. Winning breeds confidence but he knew exactly how to feed off that and not let doubts creep in. His mental game was good until Floyd and while a more judicious and nuanced approach may
have helped him see the 12th it could equally have exposed his flaws and meant an even earlier exit. Cortez was not the reason Ricky lost but Cortez was poor in that and a few other fights mainly in his inconsistencies and yeah as you have pointed out so was Vann but ultimately one can not say Floyd only won because of Cortez without then saying the same about Dave Paris and Ricky beating Tszyu. That did not look like Ricky when he got in the ring with Manny and I think he knew it, far from believing the hype he looked desperate. He looked beaten before a punch was thrown and I think his carelessness was due to fear. He thought only the wild card would win him that hand, he thought if he did not throw everything at Manny he would get stopped anyway and so he was reckless and it cost him.

[JonnyFolds]

Hey look... Having the balls to get in with floyd and pac took balls... Nobody is being retarded enough to say otherwise?

My gripe is that I believe he could have beaten pac... Watch the first round, he looks like he might get on top at some point, he's walking pac down and applying educated pressure... Then BHAM, pac clips him and instead of shaking it off he gets pissed and boxing goes out the window. I suspect, had he not had so much hype about being some sort of ungodly pressure fighting machine that he may have recomposed himself, not taken the battering that he did in the rest of the 1st and then who knows? Maybe not end up a sitting duck for that monstorous shot in the second.

If I thought he had no chance at all, then I wouldn't critique him would I?

I think after the Tyzu fight he was misstrained - the focus just on conditioning (he knew this himself, why do you think he ended up leaving graham?), not developing his skills... Which had bu no means peaked lol.

He had the footspeed to trouble floyd in terms of ring generalship, just bothing else... Had he had a bit more in his toolbox he would have at least made it the full 12.

So no... I don't think he 'was a fool for thinking he could beat those guys'. Don't fet it twisted, his lifestyle and the hype he was given stopped reaching his true potential in my eyes... and that is frustrating as a BOXING FAN.

I have no problem with the mayweather outcome for the dude whining about chestnuts, however it is pretty clear cortez played his part! Such is boxing...

Stop hating on the hitman, he's a legend.

You'll hear no complaints about the likes of Vann being lax with Hatton for hitting and holding or clinching excessivley though, such is boxing...

I Picked Hatton to win, 30 seconds into the fight after Pac landed his first Right Hook, I knew it was over. Hatton's complete expression changed, and it was clear that the speed had a blinding effect on him. I have no idea how anyone could say he was in the Pac fight whatsoever.

Hatton:
-was using drugs drinking & overeating long before the Pacquiao fight
-so little to prove at this point, and so little he could prove
-will never get a fight with a Top 5 p4p-er again even if he won out the next 2-3 years
-could only hope to become a paper champion
-he will never be able to make 140 again

Good luck in retirement!

[Althugz]

Hey look... Having the balls to get in with floyd and pac took balls... Nobody is being retarded enough to say otherwise?

My gripe is that I believe he could have beaten pac... Watch the first round, he looks like he might get on top at some point, he's walking pac down and applying educated pressure... Then BHAM, pac clips him and instead of shaking it off he gets pissed and boxing goes out the window. I suspect, had he not had so much hype about being some sort of ungodly pressure fighting machine that he may have recomposed himself, not taken the battering that he did in the rest of the 1st and then who knows? Maybe not end up a sitting duck for that monstorous shot in the second.

If I thought he had no chance at all, then I wouldn't critique him would I?

I think after the Tyzu fight he was misstrained - the focus just on conditioning (he knew this himself, why do you think he ended up leaving graham?), not developing his skills... Which had bu no means peaked lol.

He had the footspeed to trouble floyd in terms of ring generalship, just bothing else... Had he had a bit more in his toolbox he would have at least made it the full 12.

So no... I don't think he 'was a fool for thinking he could beat those guys'. Don't fet it twisted, his lifestyle and the hype he was given stopped reaching his true potential in my eyes... and that is frustrating as a BOXING FAN.

I have no problem with the mayweather outcome for the dude whining about chestnuts, however it is pretty clear cortez played his part! Such is boxing...

Stop hating on the hitman, he's a legend.

You'll hear no complaints about the likes of Vann being lax with Hatton for hitting and holding or clinching excessivley though, such is boxing...

Exactly my thoughts on Ricky. I've given him his props before, especially for leaving Warren when he did and not riding the easy Warren train until the end like Calzaghe did. Ironically, Greenbeanz saying I'm hating on him for challenging himself when the respect I had for Ricky WAS because he challenged himself.

The thing I don't like is his inability to see what is wrong in his game and work towards getting it fixed. There was ALWAYS a reason why he lost beyond his boxing skills. I dunno, maybe he was used to being undefeated so long?

Greenbeanz, you're getting emotional again towards me. Stop it - I thought we were in a good place