is hatton an elite or not?

[Dark Lord Al]

Ricky is a GREAT British World champion , he has a good resume , and is one of the finest fighters to come out of Britain since the War.
He lost only to the best p4p of his time , however in the wider picture , he doesnt hold a light to guys like JCC ,Duran , ODLH , PACMAN , Mayweather etc.

[Andre]

Ricky is a GREAT British World champion , he has a good resume , and is one of the finest fighters to come out of Britain since the War.
He lost only to the best p4p of his time , however in the wider picture , he doesnt hold a light to guys like JCC ,Duran , ODLH , PACMAN , Mayweather etc.

Cant beat that for a fair call.

[Kel]

At his peak he would give any 140 guy past or present a tough fight, he was a real handfull but he has never been a 'truly elite' fighter. He was never consistent enough to be, one fight he would move well and pick shots and break a guy down and others he walked head on missing shots and eating them in return.

[fan johnny]

He defended his Junior Welterweight Title something like 26 times and only lost to two fighters considered p4p the best. Named 2005 fighter of the year.

Is it not that "elite fighter" considered to be the group of fighters at the top of the weightclass? What the time frame? Are you talking about all time elite/great fighters? or are you asking was he ever considered an elite fighter?

Today, if you consider the top 4 or 5 as elite, (arguably) Pacquiao, Bradley, Holt, writer and Urango is Hatton competitive against these fighters? Absolutely! with one exception.

Yesterday, (figuratively, say the last 5 years) without a doubt an elite fighter.

ATG, if he retires today, I don't think he makes it to the 100's list.

[BIG H]

What Al said!

[DatsiK]

To me.. to be elite you have to beat the elites. And so far he hasn't done that.. you could argue that Tsyzu and Castillo were elite but it was clear they were past their best, although that doesn't take anything away from the victory, you can only fight who's infront of you after all.

I'm not taking anything away from Hatton, he's one of my favourite fighters, but I think he's always stumbled when trying to achieve elite status, and he always will. But I hope he ends his career on a high, I'd love to see one or even two more fights from him.. to me he can still easily beat Witter, Bradley or Holt.

[BIG H]

To me.. to be elite you have to beat the elites. And so far he hasn't done that.. you could argue that Tsyzu and Castillo were elite but it was clear they were past their best, although that doesn't take anything away from the victory, you can only fight who's infront of you after all.

I'm not taking anything away from Hatton, he's one of my favourite fighters, but I think he's always stumbled when trying to achieve elite status, and he always will. But I hope he ends his career on a high, I'd love to see one or even two more fights from him.. to me he can still easily beat Witter, Bradley or Holt.

I don't disagree with what you are saying apart from "Tszyu was clearly past his best" I honestly don't think he was, there were no signs of decline in Tszyu, he just got mauled and out gamed.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

To me.. to be elite you have to beat the elites. And so far he hasn't done that.. you could argue that Tsyzu and Castillo were elite but it was clear they were past their best, although that doesn't take anything away from the victory, you can only fight who's infront of you after all.

I'm not taking anything away from Hatton, he's one of my favourite fighters, but I think he's always stumbled when trying to achieve elite status, and he always will. But I hope he ends his career on a high, I'd love to see one or even two more fights from him.. to me he can still easily beat Witter, Bradley or Holt.

I don't disagree with what you are saying apart from "Tszyu was clearly past his best" I honestly don't think he was, there were no signs of decline in Tszyu, he just got mauled and out gamed.

KT had been woefully inactive. It was an insane fight, stupid time in the morning and a ridiculous amount of mauling that Hatton was allowed to get away with. Most of the British fans didn't mind turning a blind eye to that as long as there man won - hence, calling the ref a cheat everytime Hatton fought in the US when he broke up the tight fest for 'not allowing Ricky to work'.

Castillo was way gone when Hatton got to him.

There are some good names on paper. For instance Ben Tackie is a decent name but a terrible 1-2 plodder.

Hatton, great British fighter, but far from the elite.

[Fenster]

Tszyu fought Hatton on the back of looking seriously impressive against Mitchell, was a hot favourite and ranked P4P no.3.. That has to go down as a great win for Hatton.

All his opponents after Tszyu were rated top 10 by The Ring.

He spent 4 years in-and-out of The Ring P4P top 10.

So not an all-time great but an elite fighter for his time period.

[LEGION]

To me.. to be elite you have to beat the elites. And so far he hasn't done that.. you could argue that Tsyzu and Castillo were elite but it was clear they were past their best, although that doesn't take anything away from the victory, you can only fight who's infront of you after all.

I'm not taking anything away from Hatton, he's one of my favourite fighters, but I think he's always stumbled when trying to achieve elite status, and he always will. But I hope he ends his career on a high, I'd love to see one or even two more fights from him.. to me he can still easily beat Witter, Bradley or Holt.

I don't disagree with what you are saying apart from "Tszyu was clearly past his best" I honestly don't think he was, there were no signs of decline in Tszyu, he just got mauled and out gamed.

KT had been woefully inactive. It was an insane fight, stupid time in the morning and a ridiculous amount of mauling that Hatton was allowed to get away with. Most of the British fans didn't mind turning a blind eye to that as long as there man won - hence, calling the ref a cheat everytime Hatton fought in the US when he broke up the tight fest for 'not allowing Ricky to work'.

Castillo was way gone when Hatton got to him.

There are some good names on paper. For instance Ben Tackie is a decent name but a terrible 1-2 plodder.

Hatton, great British fighter, but far from the elite.

What she said....

Ricky has been and still is one of my fave fighters; love that sort of reckless abandon he brings in the ring. And though he has some good wins on his record against good fighters, he's not elite.

Elite fighters know how to adapt in the ring and no one can say Ricky is good at switching to a better gameplan when the time calls for it; it sure wasn't adapting in his last fight, he just got more stubborn and continued doing what he does and got trainwrecked for it. JMM got knocked down several times and changed up his game to make a fight of it; that's elite, not what Ricky does{or more specifically doesn't do}.

Elite fighters don't need referees helping them stay afloat by fixing his shoelace problems so he desn't get ktfo in his backyard against some guy named Lazcano{who?}

Elite figters don't need to resort to what had to be the low blow of all low blows when he fought KT; punching his balls into his throat. That's why he's not elite; he got used to being coddled by all those refs in UK who let him get away with that stuff his whole career. He never learned to adapt because he didn't have to.

[blegit]

I'm not so sure I would say elite. He beat one elite fighter and his win over Collazo was very controversial. I think Hatton had/has to do more to be considered elite. Take away the Kostya Tsyzu win and is this really a debate? Basically, before the Tsyzu fight he was not even questioned as elite and after the Tsyzu fight he got knocked out by the next two elite fighters he fought. Elite level is a different category. Bradley, Judah, Campbell, Collazo, Mayorga etc are not elite fighters. They are good fighters. Hatton is a good/great fighter who was the ruler of the good fighters but he just wasn't smart enough of a fighter to keep with the elite level.

[Dean Duke]

Ricky is a GREAT British World champion , he has a good resume , and is one of the finest fighters to come out of Britain since the War.
He lost only to the best p4p of his time , however in the wider picture , he doesnt hold a light to guys like JCC ,Duran , ODLH , PACMAN , Mayweather etc.

sums it up for me just short of elite

[paddy448]

Ricky is a GREAT British World champion , he has a good resume , and is one of the finest fighters to come out of Britain since the War.
He lost only to the best p4p of his time , however in the wider picture , he doesnt hold a light to guys like JCC ,Duran , ODLH , PACMAN , Mayweather etc.

well said