Ricky Hatton; Good Call.

[Bomp]

Last Saturday night we saw a seemingly past prime Junior Witter defeated by Timothy Bradley.
Bradley although very fit and strong, was a fighther that was not yet at world level and Witter seems to have dropped from the public's ratings now.

I feel that Witter knew he was past his best. He realised he was coming to the end and he needed his meal ticket. Hatton is the meal ticket in the 140lb division and Witter manipulated the media in an attempt to get a shot.
Did he deserve it? Many will say yes, but apart from defeating an elderly Vivian Harris, Witter had done very little.
Hatton, despite widespread criticism stood firm denying Witter his payday, to our collective puzzlement.
Was Hatton afraid, did he see some threat? or did he genuinely believe that Witter did not deserve to make money of his name?

Brendan Ingle told me recently, that for his lads boxing was about making money. He says he takes care of his lads and helps them to make money to feed their families and live a little more comfortably. Witter was most probably trying to make money off Ricky's marketability.

Hatton fans were questioning why Ricky refused the fight, the media fell hook, line and sinker, chastising Hatton's "excuse."

Ricky got it right. Witter was only after money and Rick made the right call.

The only flaw in your reasoning is that Witter's been calling out Hatton for 8 years, far before his skills had started to diminish.

Hatton was rightly chastised for his dumbass 'excuse', before saturday night Witter was widely considered no.2 in the division behind Hatton, he was a local rival and the fans wanted to see the fight.
If Hatton really believed that Witter was there for the taking, and that Witter was only calling him out for the money, wouldn't it have made much more sense for Hatton to fight Witter rather than Lazcano? since he'd be fighting a much more highly regarded opponent, he'd get a presitgious belt, and he'd have shut Witter up for ever, effectively killing THREE birds with one stone.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Name a fighter that isn't in it for the money?

Ricky's BEST excuse for dodging Witter has always been to prevent him from a huge payday. He GENUINELY dislikes him. So stopping Witter from cashing in was the worst thing he could possibly do to him.

"Fighters want to fight for titles, but not as much as we want to fight for MONEY." Roy Jones jr

Marco Antonio Barrera
Calvin Brock
Juan Diaz

I personally think Hatton made a mistake here I have wanted to see the Witter fight for years and now looks sure it will never happen,

had Hatton fought Witter instead of Juan lacuzo he would have had the opportunity to say he is going straight in with the best at LWW and had the Witter that turned up on Saturday turned up Hatton would have blown him away and looked good doing it

I don't think there are that many great fights out there for Hatton at the moment (Malignaggi is made for Hatton)

I would have loved to watch hatton destroy Witter at COMS and financial and for this legacy it would have made sense to go straight in for a title fight particular if he was so confident

Witter has a style to make Hatton look horrible in victory. Witter's style would have Hatton (the champ) chase and work all night long.
Why would he bother when he can KO Lazcano (I PRESUME) save himself time and keep repuatation.

Last Saturday night we saw a seemingly past prime Junior Witter defeated by Timothy Bradley.
Bradley although very fit and strong, was a fighther that was not yet at world level and Witter seems to have dropped from the public's ratings now.

I feel that Witter knew he was past his best. He realised he was coming to the end and he needed his meal ticket. Hatton is the meal ticket in the 140lb division and Witter manipulated the media in an attempt to get a shot.
Did he deserve it? Many will say yes, but apart from defeating an elderly Vivian Harris, Witter had done very little.
Hatton, despite widespread criticism stood firm denying Witter his payday, to our collective puzzlement.
Was Hatton afraid, did he see some threat? or did he genuinely believe that Witter did not deserve to make money of his name?

Brendan Ingle told me recently, that for his lads boxing was about making money. He says he takes care of his lads and helps them to make money to feed their families and live a little more comfortably. Witter was most probably trying to make money off Ricky's marketability.

Hatton fans were questioning why Ricky refused the fight, the media fell hook, line and sinker, chastising Hatton's "excuse."

Ricky got it right. Witter was only after money and Rick made the right call.

The only flaw in your reasoning is that Witter's been calling out Hatton for 8 years, far before his skills had started to diminish.

Hatton was rightly chastised for his dumbass 'excuse', before saturday night Witter was widely considered no.2 in the division behind Hatton, he was a local rival and the fans wanted to see the fight.
If Hatton really believed that Witter was there for the taking, and that Witter was only calling him out for the money, wouldn't it have made much more sense for Hatton to fight Witter rather than Lazcano? since he'd be fighting a much more highly regarded opponent, he'd get a presitgious belt, and he'd have shut Witter up for ever, effectively killing THREE birds with one stone.

Witter was calling out Ricky for a British Title shot originally. Hatton was moving on to the world scene at that stage.
And why is it that Ricky was always at the place Junior wanted to be before Junior could get there?

[Fenster]

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

[donnydarkoIRL]

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

MAB, reportedly at the top of his law class.
Could have travelled the world as a lawyer and made money easier.

Calvin Brock, a banker who made huge money before entering boxing. Chose to box.

Juan Diaz, an honour student, studying Law. Could/Can make a lot of money eaier than boxing.

Evander Holyfield.

[Macho]

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

MAB, reportedly at the top of his law class.
Could have travelled the world as a lawyer and made money easier.

Calvin Brock, a banker who made huge money before entering boxing. Chose to box.

Juan Diaz, an honour student, studying Law. Could/Can make a lot of money eaier than boxing.

Evander Holyfield.

Ohhh, Donny , i think that you maybe miss , The Principe " Hazim Hammed " , he was another Millionaire that chossed to Boxing too , because he liked it.............
Obviously , i never liked him like a Boxer , THANKS to Marcos Antonio Barrera took him out of Boxing...........

[Pugilistic]

i never liked witter and i knew he was overated. Hatton would beat Witter by late stoppage or UD.

[Fenster]

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

MAB, reportedly at the top of his law class.
Could have travelled the world as a lawyer and made money easier.

Calvin Brock, a banker who made huge money before entering boxing. Chose to box.

Juan Diaz, an honour student, studying Law. Could/Can make a lot of money eaier than boxing.

Evander Holyfield.

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

[p4pking]

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

MAB, reportedly at the top of his law class.
Could have travelled the world as a lawyer and made money easier.

Calvin Brock, a banker who made huge money before entering boxing. Chose to box.

Juan Diaz, an honour student, studying Law. Could/Can make a lot of money eaier than boxing.

Evander Holyfield.

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Sie...eature=related

[sonny78]

Witter has a style to make Hatton look horrible in victory. Witter's style would have Hatton (the champ) chase and work all night long.
Why would he bother when he can KO Lazcano (I PRESUME) save himself time and keep repuatation.

Its a risk Hatton should have took in my opinion I think him and his people missed the opportunity, his (Witter) stock was so high at the moment quite possibly overrated but he was still the WBC Champ and taking that scalp straight after a loss would have been a great move

Imagine Hatton was in the Ring on Saturday he would have demolished Witter

why he should bother when he can KO Lazcano to keep his reputation

KO'ing Lazcano doesn't enhance Hattons reputation at all it just shows hes taking the easy option and just fighting for the money something you seem not to like, I definitely dont I want to see Hatton get the belts back and fight the best available

Witter's style would have Hatton (the champ) chase and work all night long.

Isn't this what hatton does best?

[sonny78]

Hatton cannot be deemed to have ducked Witter. Hatton openly refused to give Witter a fight because he did not want to allow Witter to make money off his name.

Just to be clear I dont think Hatton ducked Witter I think Hatton always wanted to beat Witter, I dont like the money excuse if your a financially well off fighter dont deny a fellow fight the chance of making some money if they have ernt it by becoming champion, even if you dont like him, I dont think Hatton is truly like that

Witter proved last Saturday that he was not on Hatton's level.

Maybe or maybe he is a talented fight who had a bad night either way Hatton would of and should have beat him

[Mar]

Most of us thought hatton could beat witter. For me it was hatton himself who started to give me doubts. Hatton going out of his way to avoid him still looks bad imo. As soon as the fight ended i knew hatton would use this as a so called i told ya so, but in reality no one well almost no one saw this coming, or hatton himself would have said so before the fight.

[GRBOXINGFAN]

It gets a little old, the whole who's ducking who thing.

Let me tell you, this is a business. Hatton had little reason to fight Witter before as there was not as much money in it and he had his sites set on bigger things. If Witter could've made him the most money he would've fought him. He's coming off a KO now so he needs an easier fight in order to position himself for more money in the long run.

When you become the big draw everyone calls you out. You know how many times Sugar Ray Leonard got called out in the 80s, when he was the biggest draw.

Oscar has been called out by every single fighter from 130 to 175, why? Because he's the biggest money maker for them. I'd call him out too, maybe he'll listen and you'll get paid.

Everyone calls Floyd out now because he is the top gun, you know what? Floyd called a ton of guys out early in his career and was ignored because there was not much money in it for them. I've spent most of my life around boxers and these guys aren't scared of anyone. It takes a massive ego to do what they do in front of the huge crowds, they don't think there is a fighter they can't whoop.

Its the same for all of boxing history, the top fighters get to pick among the guys who call them out. You wait, even tough guy Cotto will be ignoring fighters who call him out in the following years as he becomes a huge draw.

Its a business! Nobodies ducking nobody, they're just waiting to get paid. I guess its the discussion and debate like this that generates the money in the long run though.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Ohhh, Donny , i think that you maybe miss , The Principe " Hazim Hammed " , he was another Millionaire that chossed to Boxing too , because he liked it.............
Obviously , i never liked him like a Boxer , THANKS to Marcos Antonio Barrera took him out of Boxing...........

The fact of the matter is, a fight between Hatton and Witter made a lot of sense, since Witter was the CHAMPION and both are BRITS, which made the fight logical financially. It was the best fight out there at 140 for Hatton, certainly much better than a fight against Lazcano and the weak hitting Paulie. Hatton is still a punk in my book for ducking Witter.

Now when you reply to this keep in mind I'm very close to neg repping you, so provide some logical back up to your reply.

Hatton cannot be deemed to have ducked Witter. Hatton openly refused to give Witter a fight because he did not want to allow Witter to make money off his name.
Witter proved last Saturday that he was not on Hatton's level.
Witter after last Saturday's performance is not on Paulie's level either.
Witter never beat anyone that merited a shot at the No.1 spot.

Before sturday Witter had a better (evens at worse) resume than Paulie. No other LWW comes close to meriting a shot at no.1 than Witter.
WHO did Hatton beat to merit a shot at no.1 Kostya?
WHO did, URANGO, MAUSSA, CASTILLO, LAZCANO beat to merit a shot at the no.1 Hatton?

Witter beat nobody apart from a young Kotelnik and Vivian Harris!

Urango had a belt.
Maussa also had a belt.
Castillo is a legend in the sport.
And Lazcano was a supreme lightweight.

[BoomBoom]

Even though Witter lost he is still a very good fighter. Every fighter loses sometimes and it doesnt mean hes overratted. Bradley desrves a lot of credit as does Witter. Anyone who had seen Bradley fight before could see that he was very capable of pulling off an upset. Hatton-Witter is still an interesting fight imo.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Even though Witter lost he is still a very good fighter. Every fighter loses sometimes and it doesnt mean hes overratted. Bradley desrves a lot of credit as does Witter. Anyone who had seen Bradley fight before could see that he was very capable of pulling off an upset. Hatton-Witter is still an interesting fight imo.

Witter did nothing for large portions of the fight last saturday night.

He knew everybody was watching and it was his big night.