
Originally Posted by
AdamGB
Well... whether Hatton was weight drained or not one thing is certain:
He shouldn't have been.
Because the British public are such mugs, his inability to act like an elite athlete (and his team's encouragement of him to act the way he did) might have won him lots of fans but it also stopped him from properly reaching his potential.
Honestly... the Mayweathers and Pacquios of the world don't give a fuck if you like to drink 12 pints and play darts with the lads down the pub. As far as his team were concerned though I'm sure making money/fans was a pretty big priority.
There was a program on around Christmas time about Hatton's life. I thought it would be interesting to watch his early amateur/gym footage etc... because despite having rants like this I do like the guy. I had to stop watching it though... his fucking dad going on about how 'normal' Ricky is was nauseating... could you possibly lay it on any fucking thicker mate?
Does his team (and the people stupid enough to buy into the image they were PUSHING) think that he is the only world level boxer out there who wouldn't rather be doing 'normal' things like chilling with his mates.
Do other boxers ride penny farthings around whilst throwing trouts at the public or something? What exactly makes Hatton more 'normal' than someone like Joe Calzaghe?
if he'd taken proper care (or even just tried a little outside of training camp, as opposed to not at all) of himself then he probably wouldn't be too far removed from the physicality he had when he fought Tyszu... and who knows if graham and hatton hadn't start to buy into their own hype that he could walk through a brick wall then maybe he would have been less undeveloped and a bit more refined when he needed to be.
Spending close to 100% of his camp getting fight fit would have been a lot better than spending 50% of his training camp shifting tens of pounds of dead weight and the other 50% getting fight fit.
Obviously he can live his life however he wants to bit is pisses me off to see what was a lot of god given ability go to relative waste.
Don't think he was weight drained, he just ruined himself and failed to step up his game/lifestyle when his level of opposition went up, not saying if he had he was a cert to beat these guys... I just know he could have been better.
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