I'm on a personal mission - To tell everyone that Hatton is NOT on the slide.

[eagle]

Why is everyone wanting him to move up, so he gets a beating? He took one fight at 147 because his opponent at 140lb was injured and he did not want to let all his fans who dished out a lot of money to see him in America down. He aint a welterweight, most of the welters mentioned are taller with a better reach and stronger.

Well Castillo has fought the majority of his career under 140 and most of the fighters in that division are bigger than him but u dont seem to have a problem with him fighting Ricky......

5'8 with a better reach than Rick. Why would I have a problem? He has trouble making weight below 140 which is why he failed to make weight for the second Corrales fight and is now fighting at 140lb

The point is he has moved up, and if he loses you wint say thats an excuse, yet u use moving up as an excues fo Ricky not fighting guys like cotto and pbf. Good fighters can move up one or two divisions and still be effective. Am i wrong?

[Kel]

He had no choice but to move up, if you cannot physically make the weight what else can you do?

Good fighters can move up one or two divisions and still be effective. Am i wrong?No your not. BUT, Ricky's style would be less and less effective the more he moves up in weight.

[Gandalf]

I dont think Hatton is on the slide. In fact he was looking good against Urango and then just eased up on the way to a convincing victory. Collazo was tougher, but I still had Hatton up by a point.

He needs to look sharp against Castillo though, I can hear the blades sharpening as I speak....

Go get him Ricky!!!

[amat]

I dont think Hatton is on the slide. In fact he was looking good against Urango and then just eased up on the way to a convincing victory. Collazo was tougher, but I still had Hatton up by a point.

He needs to look sharp against Castillo though, I can hear the blades sharpening as I speak....

Go get him Ricky!!!

Yeah that's the thing I think we forget. Had Urango not come out for round 6, people would have been calling Hatton's victory spectacular because in all honesty, it was. He was in and out very sharp, very accurate with his punches and got out without getting hit. He was impressive.

[THE THIRD MAN]

Why is everyone wanting him to move up, so he gets a beating? He took one fight at 147 because his opponent at 140lb was injured and he did not want to let all his fans who dished out a lot of money to see him in America down. He aint a welterweight, most of the welters mentioned are taller with a better reach and stronger.

Because that's where his big fights are at! Both Cotto and Judah spent a lot of time at 140lb and they both look fine at 147. If Hatton only wants to be known as a fighter who beat an old champion then he needs to get on his bike and move up to 147lb and mix it with the big boys who not so long ago were exactly the same size he is. Who is he going to fight at 140 after Castillo? Witter or Harris? He beats those two guys and nobody would give a shit.

[bzkfn]

The point i'd like to make is that Hatton has one good win. It was against a great fighter. It was against an inactive aging fighter, who hatton fought in his own backyard with an obviously bias ref and a huge hometown crowd, but a win against a great fighter nonetheless. Hatton has great skills i have no doubt, good heart, good stamina, hard punches the lot. But as so many british boxers do recently he doesnt back it up.
Now he is fighting another great yet aging fighter. Maybe he is being ducked? Maybe he cannot negotiate a big name fight, but until Hatton beats a great fighter in their prime, eg PBF, Cotto, Mosely i'll not give him the praise his fanboys do.

To me, that's unbelievable. Ricky Hatton has firmly established himself as the best light-welter in the world. He does look for the big fights, but you can't blame him for people not taking the fights. How can you not praise a guy that has won titles in 2 weightclasses. Has last 4 fights have been for world titles. Are you trying to say Castillo is past it, and beating him proves nothing? Would it be the same if he fought De La Hoya?

[bronco]

Ricky on the slide- I THINK NOT, he has fought world class men, in his last few fights, and you cannot blow away fighters of this standard, the style of one fighter from another will contribute to the overall difference in the way Ricky wins, AND HE HAS WON, the recent workouts with stevie forbes to sharpen up his speed and boxing moves, added to his natural aggression will see him stop Castillo in the later rounds Rickys a natural light welter but still beat a full -welter

[bzkfn]

Over the last few weeks various comments made by members on this site have got my back up a little bit. Comments relating to Hatton being 'over the hill' or 'he doesn't perform well abroad or he's 'past his prime.' These sort of phrases are basically cliches that are not really specific to Hatton's situation. The very simple reason for Hatton not looking good is because his last 2 opponents were southpaws. He never ever looks decent against southpaws. Especially strong southpaws. He always struggles. Everything about the southpaw stance gives him trouble.

Against Urango, Hatton was circling him the wrong way....like he was fighting an orthadox fighter. During the training for that fight, Billy Graham was caught a lot of the time training Hatton like he was due to be fighting an orthadox fighter.

Eamon Magee, a natural welter southpaw also gave Hatton a lot of trouble, not quite as much as Collazo but much more than Urango.....2 years later Hatton beat Kostya Tszyu.

I'm not saying that some criticism is unwarranted because it is......he gains too much weight in between fights, his style is borderline legal at times, he gets careless when he feels he is better than his opponent, he doesn't have that one punch KO power to end a fight early at world level, he doesn't seem to go to the body so much anymore....i could go on.

Hatton isn't anywhere near a perfect fighter but he's also not anywhere near 'past his prime.'

#168 for starting this thread.

[BIG H]

I am a HUGE Hatton fan but....................

His last 2 performances have been his worst
He has never run out of gas before, but has in a big way in his last 2 fights
He has hardly lost a round previously, but looked very vunerable in both the last 2 fights
He put in a superhuman effort in against Tszyu, maybe he left a bit of himself in the ring that night

I don't want to believe it, but unless you think he will perform better and have a bigger win than he diid against Tszyu, then by definition you believe he has peaked and is past his very best

I belive that he did peak that night and he is probably past his very best.

[bzkfn]

I am a HUGE Hatton fan but....................

His last 2 performances have been his worst
He has never run out of gas before, but has in a big way in his last 2 fights
He has hardly lost a round previously, but looked very vunerable in both the last 2 fights
He put in a superhuman effort in against Tszyu, maybe he left a bit of himself in the ring that night

I don't want to believe it, but unless you think he will perform better and have a bigger win than he diid against Tszyu, then by definition you believe he has peaked and is past his very best

I belive that he did peak that night and he is probably past his very best.

Collazo...I agree, but he never looked in trouble against Urango. That decision was wider than Butterbean.

[BIG H]

I am a HUGE Hatton fan but....................

His last 2 performances have been his worst
He has never run out of gas before, but has in a big way in his last 2 fights
He has hardly lost a round previously, but looked very vunerable in both the last 2 fights
He put in a superhuman effort in against Tszyu, maybe he left a bit of himself in the ring that night

I don't want to believe it, but unless you think he will perform better and have a bigger win than he diid against Tszyu, then by definition you believe he has peaked and is past his very best

I belive that he did peak that night and he is probably past his very best.

Collazo...I agree, but he never looked in trouble against Urango. That decision was wider than Butterbean.

Hatton was complaining to his corner after 6 rounds that the tank was empty. He was also getting busted up by the bodyshots, If Urango was a higher quality opponent he would've capitalized on this and not let Ricky off the hook like he did. But yeh, fair play the result was never in doubt, it's just that he didn't looks as good as he used to

[bzkfn]

I am a HUGE Hatton fan but....................

His last 2 performances have been his worst
He has never run out of gas before, but has in a big way in his last 2 fights
He has hardly lost a round previously, but looked very vunerable in both the last 2 fights
He put in a superhuman effort in against Tszyu, maybe he left a bit of himself in the ring that night

I don't want to believe it, but unless you think he will perform better and have a bigger win than he diid against Tszyu, then by definition you believe he has peaked and is past his very best

I belive that he did peak that night and he is probably past his very best.

Collazo...I agree, but he never looked in trouble against Urango. That decision was wider than Butterbean.

Hatton was complaining to his corner after 6 rounds that the tank was empty. He was also getting busted up by the bodyshots, If Urango was a higher quality opponent he would've capitalized on this and not let Ricky off the hook like he did. But yeh, fair play the result was never in doubt, it's just that he didn't looks as good as he used to

I know what you mean, I just think Hatton had himself in trouble, it had nothing to do with Urango imo.

[The_One77]

He isnt over the hill, the consistency of better competition has just gotten better...
Sorry but he's not going to be fighting bums like Eamon Macgee anymore

[killersheep]

He isnt over the hill, the consistency of better competition has just gotten better...
Sorry but he's not going to be fighting bums like Eamon Macgee anymore

Urango is a bum, he won the title by a gift over Ben Rabah. Collazo, was absolutely destroyed by Mosley.
Maussa is a wilder swinging Urango basically.

I believe Castillo is gonna destroy Hatton, Hatton takes the first 5 rounds and then it's JLC all night long.
Look for dirty tactics from both fighters.

To get back to the topic at hand, I do feel Hatton is on the slide. His work rate is way down, and he is getting
gassed out in the championship rounds. His fights pre-tszyu and of course the tszyu fight itself showed a young
hyper active warrior, jumping in and doing high-work rate body work just annihilateing the competition, haven't
seen that since Tszyu though, keep in mind that, that was 2 years ago.

i now have 47 sad clicks, watch them go up as they always do when I don't agree that Hatton walks on water.

[gyrokai]

you must b stupid to assume hattons over the hill, got a funny feeling a lot of people will have a different opinion on hatton after the JLC fight

You know what, JLC ain't too young either. His last fights have been average performances, not to mention he's been forced to not stay busy.

But, I'm VERY HAPPY this fight is being made. Should be an excellent fight. Castillo never gives up, and Hatton should put him in that position where he has to choose to give up. At the same time, Castillo is going to hurt Hatton. That's the way I see it.