Ricky should have stayed with Billy Graham

[BoomBoom]

Mosley is the only one I can think of at the moment. Though Im not sure he improved, his gameplan was better.

[Cortez The Killer]

I see where you guys are coming from. But first and foremost, boxing is a business and it was a business move.


Hatton said in interview he felt like Graham was slowing down and as a result he was too. Here's a guy who felt like he had a handful of fights left in him and wanted to finish his career in the best way possible. That's why Hatton made the move, sure it wasnt easy for him to do either.

When it happened I know I felt like it took away some of the....I dunno..."storybook" aspect of Hattons career. But he was just trying to do what was best for him.


And lets not forget, he's the one in the ring, he was the one eating lots of punches...his health was probably part of that decision as well.


Hindsight 20/20 and all; yeah it seems like a bad decision now. But i see why he did it and it made sense at the time.

[JudahShuffle]

I bet Graham has a whole lot to say now.. a lot of I told you so's

[XaduBoxer]

I bet Graham has a whole lot to say now.. a lot of I told you so's

Not much really... Graham picked Hatton to defeat PAC...
.

[fan johnny]

I don't necessarily agree but I think Ricky took the wrong path to improve.... I more reasonable path would have been to add to his corner rather than to change it. Certainly hiring Mayweather Sr. in place of Graham was a big mistake in my opinion.

Have you ever tried to take up a sport like snow skiing (or tennis etc...) just for the fun of it and never took lessons. You find yourself getting down the slopes ok but once you get tired, you start to fall a lot and wonder why that didn't happen to some others with less physical ability than you. It's because you lacked fundimental training in technique and what you did earlier was mussle your way down the slopes. Once your mussles started to fail your bad techniques are exposed and you started falling. So as you get older you start using more technique to compensate. You start elevating your game and the competition gets better which also exposes your bad techniques.

All hiring Mayweather Sr. did was help to point out Ricky's lack of technique while trying change him from a downhill racer into a freestylest. Ricky needs brawler techniques not dancer techniques. You don't change a fighter's style with 40 fights, you improve upon what he's got. Had he kept Graham in his corner it would have added rather than try to change.

[Gandalf]

It's an interesting one that Saddo. And something I have been thinking about since the fight. Hindsight is always a mans best friend.

Graham was someone that Ricky could trust and he was someone that knew Hatton inside out. We all know Hatton wasn't always the mauler he has since become, he did box when he was younger and he knew how to get in and throw combinations before stepping back out again. Somewhere that did get lost, seemingly post Kostya. Hatton showed glimpses of his boxing in fights since. But he started to smother his own work more and more and the style became very throw and clinchy. Anyway, the loss to Mayweather and a sloppy show against Lazcano and Graham gets the boot. Apparently because Graham was slowing down and Hatton wanted to box more.

I had always looked at the Malignaggi fight as a new start and that it showed Mayweather bringing out the things in Ricky that he was forgetting to do under Graham. The latest fight was a shocker and we all know how that went. But it has me thinking, defensively Hatton has learned very little from Mayweather and really in the Malignaggi fight we just saw Hatton fighting with a little more composure and throwing a few more jabs in there. There wasn't anything that Graham had never shown him to do before.

If Graham was slowing down then why not just have Lee Beard or someone like that help out on the pads. They were doing that for the Lazcano fight as far as I recall and were talking about the need for more combinations and movement even then. It just seems like Graham was made a scapegoat. And yet he was the one trainer who knew Hatton and had the insight as to what could and couldn't work. Mayweather Snr was a strange choice. Hatton is not a defensive fighter and the chemistry does seem very strange.

Mayweather snr has critisized Graham quite vocally in recent months, but on reflection after all the dust has settled...well, it's clear that Mayweather didn't introduce anything new either. Malignaggi was a good win for Ricky, but maybe we allowed ourselves to read too much into it and maybe Hatton did too. Malignaggi did look ragged in his fights pre Hatton. Hindsight makes it easy to reevaluate what you thought before and I'm not keen on it because people will accuse you of making excuses. But I'm not trying to do that.

But at the end of the day, it went horribly wrong against Manny. Ricky is a smart guy, he calls himself a student of boxing. If he wanted more headmovement he could have worked it out with Graham and Beard. If he thought more of a jab was needed he could have done likewise. It's not massive stuff, he's not looking to turn into Floyd Jnr. with the shoulder roll. So, it's hard to see what Floyd snr could have introduced that Billy didn't already know or that he and Ricky couldn't decide what they should introduce.

But yeah, after all is said and done. I think Billy Graham could have done just as good a job with Ricky, and certainly have had him fare better against Manny. Having people who really care in your corner makes a difference in times like that.

It's all very sad really.

[Dark Lord Al]

Losing to Mayweather and PACMAN , both at the time p4p best around is no disgrace at all , i fail to accept Hatton would have won either fight , whoever was in his corner. Simple fact is he wasnt good enough either time.

[Gandalf]

Losing to Mayweather and PACMAN , both at the time p4p best around is no disgrace at all , i fail to accept Hatton would have won either fight , whoever was in his corner. Simple fact is he wasnt good enough either time.

Yep, no shame in losing to the best. Hatton has all the courage in the world in that sense. Hatton might well have lost regardless as you say.

That punch lands under either trainer and Hatton is getting sparked.

[bikersk]

I agree that Hatton should have stuck with Graham but he was in a difficult position that no one on here is likely to be faced with, so he made his decision. The result of the fight with Pac however would have been the same no matter who he had. Pac is on a roll at the moment.

[rjj tszyu]

I know exactly what you are saying - but am not going to try put it in better words cos I just like to open a post and type carefree


Fighters always have to look for scapegoat or excuse once the '0' goes - Billy was the victim

Found it sad in the 24/7 programme for Pac when Billy said he hadn't seen or heard from him since the day he told him it was over.

I never rated Malignaggi and realise now that probably fooled us into thinking he was reborn under Mayweather.

Wonder what Billy was like watching last night - how did he feel ? what did he want to happen ? Was he thinking 'serves you right ' ?

makes you wonder - sad

To be honest I heard him being interviwed on Steve Bunce's boxing hour on thursday and Billy sounded 100% behind Ricky and was talking about his injuries feeling better and being tempted into training some american fighters in the near future!

[rjj tszyu]

i'm trying to think of any fighter who changed trainers at the tail end of there career and it improved them.

not my best subject but i can't think of one.

anyone tell me of any as i am struggling to see this as anything other than an excuse for losing.

Well the problem with career tail ends is people reach their height in popularity and take on better opponents and get found out, then people try to make excuses so the new trainer gets blamed whether or not it is his fault.

[smashup]

Mayweather Snr has or had not interest in Hatton whatsoever imo.
Just out for a fat pay cheque.

He didn't even bother turning up to the post fight presser and was bust signing autographs and having his picture minutes after HAtton suffered a Heavy KO.

Said it before the fight that the 24/7 fame thing was just a way of raising his profile.

I also thought Hatton looked beat before he got in the ring and the fans looked bemused that his anthem "Blue Moon" was'nt used as he entered the ring...they played 10 secs of it when he was already in the ring.

Mayweather was also late for 3 or 4 crucial sparring sessions and was even 1 and a half hours late on fight night.

Not saying at all that this was why Ricky lost because Manny is a league above him and Hatton wasn't capable of winning that fight (You knew as soon as Pac landed the first power shot it was gonna be over and quick) but your cornerman is someone you should trust 100% and vital to a fighters confidence.

With all of the above going on Hattons head must have been all over the place.

In short i just think Mayweather used Ricky for a payday.

[Gandalf]

Yep, I've heard all those same things. No excuses, but it all turned out far worse than it should have IMO.

Hatton fought kamikaze style and you just cannot do what he was doing against someone as quick as Manny. Maybe his head wasn't in the right place, we certainly didn't see any of what he was suggesting before the fight. It's almost as if from the opening bell he had the mist in front of his eyes. He did better in the second, but seemed to have abandoned any sort of strategy and was leading with leaping hooks and being far too reckless. I really hoped he would just get through the second and try and clear his head some more, and then of course it was all over. He really should have just stayed cautious on hearing the ten second marker. But easier said than done. It was infuriating to watch because you could see all the things he just wasn't doing that he really should have been doing.

Floyd Mayweather didn't help really. I struggle to see what Mayweather could have been helping Ricky with that Lee Beard couldn't have been doing already doing without him. What was the point? Was it just for the sake of having a name in the corner with him? Was Mayweather really needed to teach him how to throw a jab, move his head and keep his hands up? Those are things that any almost any fighter can work on with many a trainer and even then Ricky didn't deploy those things. Roach and Manny specifically worked on what to get Hatton with and timing the right correctly was what they used. There was no method in what I saw in Hatton at all, and it was so costly.

It was strange with the ring music too. I was watching it, surprised Blue Moon wasn't kicking it off. Just a little snippet when he had got into the ring. Not a big thing mind you, but strange.

[Kel]

Mayweather Snr has or had not interest in Hatton whatsoever imo.
Just out for a fat pay cheque.

He didn't even bother turning up to the post fight presser and was bust signing autographs and having his picture minutes after HAtton suffered a Heavy KO.

Said it before the fight that the 24/7 fame thing was just a way of raising his profile.

I also thought Hatton looked beat before he got in the ring and the fans looked bemused that his anthem "Blue Moon" was'nt used as he entered the ring...they played 10 secs of it when he was already in the ring.

Mayweather was also late for 3 or 4 crucial sparring sessions and was even 1 and a half hours late on fight night.

Not saying at all that this was why Ricky lost because Manny is a league above him and Hatton wasn't capable of winning that fight (You knew as soon as Pac landed the first power shot it was gonna be over and quick) but your cornerman is someone you should trust 100% and vital to a fighters confidence.

With all of the above going on Hattons head must have been all over the place.

In short i just think Mayweather used Ricky for a payday.

Certainly seems that way when you add everything up.

[Saddo]

Bob on Smash and Miles

i don;t think anyone is saying he would win... i'm more pissed about him using a loyal longterm friend as a scapgoat.. no more no less