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2 Ring belt champions collide.. Mayweather v Hatton superfight!
It Starts With A War Of Words
HATTON-MAYWEATHER
SUPERFIGHT BREWING
By Brian Doogan
Looking out of a large, open window over the great expanse of the Las Vegas valley, Ricky Hatton caught a tantalizing glimpse of destiny fulfilled. The living room of his suite at Caesars Palace offered standing room only for friends from Manchester, as the British boxing press probed cozily for their follow-up stories.
Newspapers back in London were already carrying headlines such as “Hatton Inspired To Stunning Win” (The Guardian), “Hatton’s Sights On [Floyd] Mayweather After Winning Over America” (The Times), and “Take Fat! Hatton’s Back To Best” (The Sun), and the congenial atmosphere on the 21st floor of the Palace Towers influenced questions about possible battles and conquests to come. Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, even Oscar De La Hoya were all discussed happily by the Manchester “Hitman,” whose legacy will be sealed in showdowns like these, one way or the other.
This was the real significance of Hatton’s destruction of Jose Luis Castillo inside four rounds at the Thomas & Mack Center, and his demeanor some 16 hours later reflected his deep sense of satisfaction. At 28 years old, The Ring junior welterweight champion has earned the right to be involved in the superfights of his era. Castillo was not the formidable opponent he had once been—this had been established in January, when the 33-year-old Mexican struggled ominously against Herman Ngoudjo, a 15-fight journeyman from Cameroon—but the unequivocal manner in which Hatton brought about Castillo’s demise spoke eloquently of his own right to be considered one of the most menacing and marketable practitioners in the business.
De La Hoya was among the first to convey this message, speaking to Hatton via cell phone and complimenting him on the “clever tactics” that opened up Castillo for the sickening bodypunch that ended the fight. In characteristic fashion, Hatton had crowded Castillo from the opening bell, but by creating some space during round four, he equipped himself with the necessary leverage to execute the perfect denouement.
When Castillo described it later as “the hardest punch I have ever been hit with,” the skepticism that emanated from some quarters on the safe side of the ropes was rather clumsily articulated. Fighting for a paycheck in the region of $200,000 may indeed have left “El Temible” with little incentive to get up off the canvas, but the excruciating pain he felt from the blow was evident on the contorted features of his face. Even Joe Louis would probably have sympathized. When asked once to assess a fighter who did not appear to like it to the body, “The Brown Bomber” replied succinctly, “Who do?” So Hatton’s declaration that it was the best body shot he has ever thrown, and he has thrown a few, is difficult to dispute.
Where Hatton stands now in relation to the most notable names on his horizon is a more problematic judgment call, and one that will have consumed his team in the weeks following the victory over Castillo. His marquee value is not in doubt, not when someone like De La Hoya is bending his ear. Whether “The Golden Boy” had designs on Hatton as a prospective opponent or acquisition to his ever-expanding stable of fighters was certain to be made clearer in the weeks that followed their conversation on June 23.
Hatton’s three-bout contract with promoters Dennis Hobson and Art Pellulo expired after the Castillo contest, as did his TV deal with HBO. The deal with British broadcaster Setanta was a one-off, which left everything up for renewal. Intriguingly, Frank Warren, his former promoter, with whom Hatton parted company acrimoniously following his title-winning encounter against Tszyu, re-entered the equation when the settlement of a legal matter between Warren and Hatton’s business manager and father, Ray, was announced outside the High Court in London.
“Frank Warren has agreed to cease his action against Ray Hatton on the basis that both Ray Hatton and Frank Warren have agreed to enter into discussions with respect to Ricky’s future fights,” the statement read, underlining Hatton’s status as a free agent. De La Hoya will undoubtedly have noted the Briton’s appeal at the box office. More than 9,000 fans made their way over from England to support him in Las Vegas, contributing to a crowd of 13,044, which is hardly negligible. Hatton’s suspicion was that De La Hoya might have been opening channels with a view to a confrontation, possibly at the rebuilt Wembley stadium in London.
“De La Hoya is a delightful, really genuine guy, but the fact that he phoned and congratulated me told me that I’m on his radar and he could be interested in a fight,” Hatton suggested. “Only he can answer the question about whether he’s going to fight on and who he’s going to fight, but it seems very strange that he would call me if there wasn’t more to it. He said to me, ‘You’re fantastic, you’re great to watch, and you sell a load of tickets.’ So he was talking like a promoter, but I don’t think that, ultimately, this was his agenda.”
If De La Hoya was fishing for his next foe, a line that was pedaled hard by The Mirror and the Daily Mail newspapers in Britain, some crucial questions ought to be considered first by Hatton and his team. Could he give away a 41⁄2-inch advantage in height and an eight-inch advantage in reach to a still-competitive boxer who only lost to Floyd Mayweather, boxing’s pound-for-pound king, via split points decision in May? Most pertinently, could he give away the weight, for De La Hoya would only drop to 147 pounds to make the match? Indeed, the three foremost figures on Hatton’s wish list, De La Hoya, Mayweather, and Cotto, would do battle with him at welterweight, the division in which he struggled to overcome Luis Collazo in May 2006, nine months before the New Yorker was widely outpointed by Sugar Shane Mosley.
Is Hatton an authentic welterweight? He did not look like one against Collazo, a light puncher who seriously hurt him nonetheless. Hatton’s trainer, Billy Graham, acknowledged that at welterweight Hatton’s advantage in strength was diminished and therefore he was unable to dominate his opponent in the customary manner. But the point should be made too that Hatton had only seven weeks to transform himself into a welterweight for the bout against Collazo because his original opponent, Juan Lazcano, withdrew. Given more time, Ray Hatton asserted, he would have been more dangerous at the weight.
“We learnt lessons from the Collazo fight, and these would be important if Ricky were to step up to welterweight again,” the father declared. “Obviously, we discovered in trying to build him up within a very condensed period that he lost his speed and agility, so his head and foot movement were both affected, and he took more punches than he should have.
“If he had 12 weeks to build himself up to welterweight, it would be different, and the truth is that we wouldn’t bring him all the way to 147 pounds. Ricky’s a very strong light welterweight and he’d still be strong weighing in at, say, 144 or 145 pounds. He’d also retain his footwork and agility, which were very much in evidence against Castillo. Ricky was as strong as Collazo in the clinches, but the agility wasn’t there, and this was the major disadvantage he had.”
Even a diminished De La Hoya, weighed down by inactivity and the absence of hunger, may still be too big physically for Hatton. But Mayweather and Cotto are more recent inhabitants of the junior welterweight division and closer, therefore, to Hatton’s natural size. The Cotto who was rocked two years ago by Ricardo Torres would surely have suffered against Hatton, but despite betraying signs of the old vulnerabilities, he is stronger at welterweight and more likely to be able to repel Hatton’s assaults and instigate more telling and more sustained attacks of his own.
“My ass is twitching just thinking about a fight with Cotto because, with our styles, I don’t think there is a more value-for-money fight to be made. It would be excitement and fireworks all night,” Hatton insisted. “Is there a more exciting match-up in boxing?”
There is one more spiteful, certainly, for even before Castillo had fully recovered, the insults were flying between Hatton and Mayweather. The Hitman’s suggestion to HBO commentator Max Kellerman in his postfight interview that “you saw more action in four rounds [tonight] than you’ve seen from Floyd throughout his whole career” drew the desired response from the allegedly retired “Pretty Boy.”
“Ricky Hatton has talked non-stop about fighting me for two weeks,” Mayweather countered. “He has disrespected me and my accomplishments in the ring, and I take that very seriously. I’m going to give him the opportunity to step up and fight the best in the world, but I don’t think this punk will take the challenge. Now that Hatton has opened up his big mouth, he might start to think about what he has been asking for. Does he really want to step into the ring with the best fighter of this era and embarrass himself? Being the coward that he is, I doubt he’ll get in the ring. We’ll see what his excuse will be this time.”
Hatton has long hankered after a Mayweather encounter and in the comfort of his suite he warmed to the theme. “I would be Floyd’s worst nightmare, that’s what I firmly believe,” he declared. “He wants me like [he wants] a hole in the head. Technically, there is no better fighter around, even though his performances bore most people to tears. He has so much talent, but I don’t sit up until four in the morning back in England to watch him, because he’d only send me to sleep. He likes to sit on the ropes and shut up shop, but I wouldn’t give him that luxury.
“De La Hoya had the right tactics for the first half of their bout, up until the seventh round or so. I was thinking to myself, Floyd, you’re going to have to pull your finger out here. Then Oscar died off in the last four or five rounds, just when I’d be getting stronger. Physically, Floyd is no bigger than me—I’ve been up close beside him—and, even though he’s a wonderful fighter, I really don’t think the win is beyond me.”
If Hatton could be as relentless and punishing as he was against Tszyu, he could engage Mayweather in an enthralling test, but speed, as opposed to size and physical aggression, is the most likely determining factor. One deficiency he displayed against Castillo, which Hatton would have to address before any encounter with Mayweather, is the wildness that infiltrated his work. For the most part he was brutally economical, hitting the Mexican straight in the face with his left jab shortly after the opening bell and, surprisingly, dominating the infighting. His hooks and uppercuts to the jaw carried far greater threat, for Castillo’s poor balance left him unable to deliver punches that might have stopped Hatton in his tracks. He moved forward incessantly and his continued high volume of punches in the second round drove Castillo into a neutral corner, where the champion landed two hard rights to the body.
The left hook to the head, however, was frequently an errant shot, and Castillo enjoyed a degree of success toward the end of the third round, when he caught Hatton with a right and a left to the jaw and another short right just before the bell. For the Mexican fans and their veteran charge, it served as a false dawn.
Early in round four, Castillo was penalized a point by American referee Joe Cortez for punching low, and he lost momentum. Hatton, 43-0 (31), seized the initiative, attacking with both hands and targeting Castillo’s body. Then an opening presented itself and Hatton ripped in a savage left hook that struck Castillo, 55-8-1 (47), near his liver. After spinning around in apparent agony, he went down on his right knee and remained on the canvas beyond the referee’s count, which reached an end at the 2:16 mark.
“I’m sad and disappointed for the way I lost the fight,” Castillo reflected. “Ricky is a good fighter and he caught me with a good shot. I just couldn’t stand up. The fight was getting more interesting and I thought I was getting into it, but he caught me right, and sometimes that happens.”
Castillo predicted a bad night for Hatton if he were to encounter Mayweather. “Hatton would have no chance of beating him,” Castillo insisted. “I pushed Mayweather all the way twice, and I should have won the decision (in their first encounter), but he would be too fast for Hatton.”
Paulie Malignaggi, the nifty New Yorker who won the IBF junior welterweight strap with a virtual shutout over Lovemore Ndou, was being touted as a possible opponent for Hatton in October or November, a scenario with which Hatton would have no problem.
“It’s one of my dreams, to fight at Madison Square Garden, and this would be a logical venue,” he emphasized.
As he looked out toward the Mojave Desert, however, he was dreaming of bigger fights. “The bigger the name, the better I am,” he insisted. “That’s how it was against Tszyu and now Castillo.”
But if bigger were to mean a return to welterweight, Hatton’s imperiousness may not be so easily maintained.
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Originally Posted by brucelee
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