had mayweather-hatton had NOT of been reffed by cortez.....

[Tysonbruno]

End of the day Hatton fought a lot of his fights hooking holding and wrestling especially from Tszyu onwards the Mayweathers made this obvious to Cortez and he stopped Hatton doing it the fact of the matter is had Hatton been as good as his unbeaten 43-0 record was saying he was he would have kept his composure and found a plan b or c to win fact is his plan A was Hook his plan B was Hold and plan C Wrestle. In my opinion a fighter should only hold to the degree Hatton does to recover when hurt not as a game plan to get you through fights because you cant do it with boxing ability.

[Gandalf]

End of the day Hatton fought a lot of his fights hooking holding and wrestling especially from Tszyu onwards the Mayweathers made this obvious to Cortez and he stopped Hatton doing it the fact of the matter is had Hatton been as good as his unbeaten 43-0 record was saying he was he would have kept his composure and found a plan b or c to win fact is his plan A was Hook his plan B was Hold and plan C Wrestle. In my opinion a fighter should only hold to the degree Hatton does to recover when hurt not as a game plan to get you through fights because you cant do it with boxing ability.

For someone that you regard as having such limited talent Hatton did remarkably well. He beat a lot of decent opponents and a handful of very good ones. I do agree that his style got more and more ragged over time and the clinch and hold strategy got trying.

As for having a plan B and a plan C, it's easier said than done really. Especially when up against Mayweather. Nobody expected Cortez to such an outright cnut did they now? Now of course everyone is wary of Cortez and it is the performance he is most famous (or should that be infamous) for.

Mayweather might well have gone on to impale Hatton against the ringpost anyway, but there is always that question mark surrounding the fight for me. Revisionism seems to be everywhere now and thus his reputation is taking a hit. It happens to most fighters at some point. Getting sparked in two by Manny was never going to advance his stock.

[SweetPea]

For someone that you regard as having such limited talent Hatton did remarkably well. He beat a lot of decent opponents and a handful of very good ones.

I'm not the person you were responding to... but the statement above is a pretty good description of how I view Hatton.

A lot of Hatton fans will say that Ricky didn't make the most out of his career because of his habits in between fights (drinking, blowing up in weight, etc.), but I actually think Hatton got the most of his talent. If I saw a young fighter of Hatton's talent level and skillset, there's no way I would expect that fighter to become a true world champ.

He wasn't very skilled IMO, yet he became the legit lineal champ at 140 and defended successfully against some good solid fighters.

But the two times when Hatton got in the ring with a true elite prime opponent, he got beat handily. And what drives me nuts sometimes about Hatton (and some of his fans) is that instead of just saying "Hey, Floyd and Manny are great fighters who were just too good", it becomes a big excuse fest, be it blaming Cortez, or saying he had a bad training camp against Pacquiao.

To put it another way, if Hatton had upset Floyd in a physical fight, and then Floyd had spent the next 2 years blaming the ref for the loss, Hatton fans would be KILLING Floyd for being a crybaby and a primadonna.