is hatton an elite or not?

[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.