Paulie to Retire?????

[killersheep]

I'm pretty sure lots of fighters don't regard the guy that thrashed them as the best they've faced, simply because, i think, they believe they underperformed instead of getting outclassed.

Like tons of fighters who have been knocked out say it WASN'T the hardest they've been hit.

Paulie had success against Cotto.. so understandably would class his OWN performance as better.. and inturn naturally think Cotto was a better fighter than Hatton.

Following that vein of thought, would you say Paulie did perform as well as he could have against Hatton? I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone that would say Malignaggi gave it his all in that fight. And furthermore after he received a "thrashing" from Cotto do you remember what he said? "Miguel hits hard man" and in this interview he stated he would have trouble with Cotto even on his best night. Regardless of your opinion of how it went down. This seems to be an honest interpretation by Paulie to me.

I agree. I don't doubt he is being honest. I'm just looking at it from a different perspective.

He's probably no different a fighter now, than he was for Cotto. Difference is - he was a big underdog in the Cotto fight. No-one really gave him much chance. And i think that includes Cotto. Not only was Cotto suffering from the weight but also was probably undermotivated, and therefore underperformed. So, Paulie's success was amplified. And naturally, left the fight with a far better reputation.

SO.. Paulie, Hatton and Cotto all entered their fights with a different mindset.

For instance - (as you point out) Paulie said after the fight "Miguel hits hard man." But he EXPECTED that going in. Everyone knows Cotto is a hurtful puncher. So the fact he took Cotto's punches is a victory for himself.

Whereas before the Hatton fight Paulie said "Ricky is not a big pucher." In just the 2nd round he gets badly rocked, which he admits, but afterwards still says "Ricky is not a big puncher," even though it was clear Ricky was hurting him. Obviously, the fact that Paulie was hurt by Ricky, when he didn't EXPECT to be, he sees as a failing. So he sees it as himself underperforming instead of Hatton being much BETTER than he expected.

It's a psychological thing.

And I'm even boring myself with this tosh now

I with ya here. I'm don't follow Hatton, Cotto or Malignaggi to be honest. I think Ricky is the clear champ at 140 and by far and large 140 is a crap division with a few stars and very little future promise. As you said PM was probably baffled when he got hurt in the 2nd, BUT what baffles me is he actually landed one good straight right and followed it up by throwing no more right hands for the rest of the fight.

My take on these events
-Hatton had a brilliant performance against PM and beat him more decisively.
-Cotto hurt PM more clearly.
-Hatton is the clear champ at 140.
-Malignaggi looked like crap against Hatton.
-Hatton/Cotto will never happen now because of the weight difference however slight it may seem.