Ricky fought bravely.

[skel1983]

The rematch with Phillips was on but Phillips lost to Millett!!! Then Tszyu fought Gonzalez instead, don't go throwing the QUIT word around to lightly as you will have to include fighters like Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Frazier, DLH and Roberto Duran in with Tszyu. He was 36 in 2005, had fought only twice since January 2003 and he had injury problems.
He retired at the right time, he had nothing more to prove to anyone. Tszyu gave Hatton many concessions in that fight, home turf, English ref (who was blind and ignorant of the rules of boxing by the way) no rematch clause and travel and time factor. It was something he should not have done and you won't see Mayweather or Pacquiao giving up that much that's for sure.
It's history now and it should be forgotton, Hatton won and he was a worthy victor, now he knows what it is like to be on the receiving end, Mayweather will find out too in due course.

Mate listen i respect Kosta one of my favourite fighters, i was replying to your fellow Aussie poster who was basically giving Hatton a hard time about getting knocked out and says he needs to gain some respcet by coming back, so i simply said well maybe you should have a Word with Kosta who quit in a fight where he was one point behind on two scorecards. Hatton doesnt need to prove shit.

Oh and you forgot to mention the biggest factor in Ricky having all the advantages in the fight Ricky was paid $2 million and Kosta was paid $6 million, so there is valid reason to why it was in England and therer was an English ref, Hatton made all the sacrafices to make the fight and Kosta was paid a career high by quite a margain.

The $2 million Hatton received was all he deserved at the time, both Mayweather and Pacquaio still would have made Hatton travel for that split. I am sorry i see no sacrifices by Hatton with the Tszyu fight, Tszyu was undisputed champion and got paid his due. The Tszyu camp underestimated Hatton and also underestimated the ability of the offical in charge of the fight! They should never have agreed to fight in England and they paid the penalty. As soon as i saw the weigh in i thought Tszyu was doomed and for him not to make the weight first up, I knew he had a problem. He looked awful on the scales.

Not a chance, Hatton was the one bringing all the PPV from the uk, dont get me wrong Kosta was a big name and contributed to that but Hatton was already on UK PPV, Hatton had to sacrafice alot of the purse and demands of Kosta $6 million was the reason Kosta came to the Uk, he had never seen anywhere near that amount of money in his life, your telling me Mayweatehr would of agreed to a 75/25 split in Kostas favour in his own backyard?? Please!!!

Kosta like said was given way above what any other fighter would of gave him to travel to the challangers backyard.

[KostyaTszyuTeam]

Hatton always said he beat the p4p no2, others rated Hopkins no2, and Tszyu 3. You are saying Kostya earnt 6 million, I heard 5 million. Either way, Kostya got his biggest payday. Since he was the dominant 140 pounder in his second reign, he was being paid million dollar purses, and definetly 2 million purses after unifying. Hatton was his biggest payday.

He earns FAR more outside of boxing. He has contracts to build roads in Russia derived through being famous, and putting in the time with his connections $$.

If Hatton was earning 2 million a fight befor a world title, it was because the market and population in the UK is bigger, with home fights. As for Mayweather coming to the U.K like Kostya did, forget that. Kostya underestimated Hatton. If Kostya had prior knowledge and Hatton beat the Mitchell Kostya beat, instead of Tszyu rematching Mitchell with Hatton fighting himand winning (a southpaw, so not easy for Hatton) Tszyu would NEVER have come to the U.K. He would've maximised his advantages for less pay, and bettered his chance of fighting on for another purse. As it was, he wanted Gatti first, and Hatton was his second pick