Hatton's declining punch resistance is something that i keep seeing on here. People talking about it as factor in him losing to Pacquiao or a factor in him probably losing to Marquez.

However i have an observation.

I believe his punch resistance is as good as it ever has been.

Early on his career, despite what people may say, Hatton never had a brilliant chin. He was hurt several times even against journeymen and gatekeepers.

Gilbert Quiros, a Costa Rican fighter stunned Hatton quite badly in the first round of their fight all the way back in 2000. In his autobiography Hatton says he'd never been hit that hard before....

Until he faced Vince Phillips. According to Hatton, Phillips could have probably had Hatton out of there. His legs had turned to jelly, only Phillips didn't realise nor did he have to capability to finish him off at that stage of his career.

He was also badly hurt by Eamonn Magee. He was put down in the first round and then badly shaken in the 2nd. Again Magee couldn't quite finish him off. Later on in his career Ben Tackie also managed to hurt him.

Luckily for Hatton none of the above fighters had the ability to finish him off.

The myth of his chin goes all the way back to the Kostya Tyszu fight when Hatton managed to absorb whatever Tszyu threw at him. Hatton, quite cleverly never let Tszyu set himself so he never really experienced many full bodied blows. Tszyu didn't really throw many combinations in that fight. More straight shots than anything. That was lucky for Hatton.

Everytime Hatton has faced somebody who has fast hands and throws combinations, he struggles...badly. Why do you think he only started facing these sort of fighters after he'd left Frank Warren.

You can say what you like about the bug eyed promoter, but he's not an idiot. Once he left Warren, he went on to face Collazo. A southpaw with very fast hands, who threw combinations. The result - Hatton nearly ko'd. This led people to believe Hatton's punch resistance was only good at 140 and that he couldn't take a shot from 147ers. That's true, but i believe if Collazo was a 140 fighter, he'd have still almost had Hatton out of there.
When dealing with combinations, Hatton simply has no answer. He just tends to stand in mid-range with his hands down.

The same thing happened against Mayweather when he started to open up and the same thing happened against Pacquiao. None of the above 3 are consussive punchers, but then again neither was Eamonn Magee or Ben Tackie. Only Collazo and certainly Mayweather and Pacquiao are world class fighters.

Another thing that contributed to Mayweather and Pacquiao ko'ing him was the fact that in both fights Hatton pretty much walked on to the shots. Hell, he walked onto a couple against Lazcano.

To summarise, i don't believe his chin is any worse than it ever has been. It's just that Warren managed to keep him away from the fighters who could expose it as average. In other words he kept him away from fast, accurate combination punchers.

Marquez is accurate as hell. Providing he's not totally out of his depth at the weight, he's going to be one of several fighters to hurt him and probably the 3rd to knock him out.