Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy G-Force View Post

Rick didnt give Witter a payday because he simply didnt wish to line his pockets, it's that simple. Rick told me the reason he didnt like Witter was because he was extremely two-faced and a prick. He came to that conclusion because of the fact Witter always saw to seek out Rick at various boxing functions and was the nicest person in the world to his face, then as soon as Rick wasnt there, and the camera's were on, Witter completely changed his tune and began calling out Rick.

Also, after Witter ran the marathon against Judah, Showtime simply would not entertain a fight with Hatton. And as Showtime were the paymasters at that particular time, it was never going to happen.

I think there was a window in which they could have made a decent domestic match up. I know for a fact that when Ricky resigned with Sports Network he demanded that the Witter fight was in the contract should he wish to exercise the option. After all the shit that Witter spouted from then on in, he didnt bother. But it certainly was his intent.

Any accusations that Hatton was scared of Witter is a joke, Ricky would fight anyone, thats already been proved. Warren held Hatton back for many years whilst he padded his record, and although I understand the reason behind this, in hindsight, I think it was to Rick's detriment.

A funny story about Witter.......

Witter had just had a new set of Wrought Iron gates built outside his home and was extremely proud of them, to the point he was seen posing outside his new gates in the local paper with a huge smile on his face. Now lets just say some words were passed between certain people, and the very next day those sparkling new gates were stolen and dumped. Witter's face in his local rag the following day, stood outside his house with the gates now missing was a sight for sore eyes. I know Rick still laughs to this day when it gets mentioned. Not that he had anything to do with it by the way.

As for Mayweather selling out the Hatton fight, thats ridiculous in my opinion. Mayweather needed Oscar and Ricky to do those numbers. He has never done anything like that before off his own bat, and the reason why is he's just not that popular. He's a genius, but he alone doesnt put bums on seats.
Ok, you can see my first point dealing with Witter is basically in response particularly to the first 3 bolded bits. I don't understand this, didn't want to line his pockets stuff. That just seems a really pathetic way to do things. What would you have said if Mayweather or Pacquiao had refused to fight Hatton because they didn't want to give him the payday?

So Witter wasn't a prick to him to his face?? That's a justified reason for avoiding a fight? As for 'not having anything to do' with Witter's gates being stolen. Well, that's a far more prickish thing to do then what Witter did. Having the intent to fight him means nothing, if he willfully chose not to do it. I've always disliked Witter & used to see Hatton's side that there were bigger fights out there, but thanks to all I've just read I now think Hatton is a dick. Cheers for that.

As for your second point about Mayweather, you can argue that about Oscar maybe but not Hatton. Look at it this way, Oscar did 1m more PPVs for his fight with Mayweather than he did for his next highest PPV seller (Trinidad). That would suggest that Mayweather had at least some noticeable effect on drawing fans to the fight. As Fenster points out Hatton may have brought over loads of fans for the Mayweather & Pacquiao fights, but they weren't all flocking over for Malignaggi, Castillo or Urango. Hatton's PPVs in the States were high because of PBF & Pac, not because of him. In both cases, they were the stars not Ricky.

You can also look at reported UK PPV figures. For the Mayweather fight they were 1.4m buys, for Pacquiao 400,000 buys & for Malignaggi 300,000. That surely also suggests that Mayweather was some kind of draw, not that I'm not saying Hatton wasn't responsible for the bulk of those in this country. But Mayweather did 1m PPVs with Marquez, even ignoring that it was his return to boxing, the fact is that plus Pac-Cotto doing 1m+ as well is proof that Hatton was never the draw, certainly not in the US. It was the quality of opponents that drew thousands of fans over, otherwise the MGM would have been packed when he fought Paulie.