I hope Pedersen comes back.

[stujones]

Okay, he was out of his depth against a world class Light welter at the days notcie. However, he did okay and FOUGHT with plenty of heart.

I would love to see him back at his normal weight (and with some notice) taking on the top British lightweights. Cook vs Pedersen would be quite interesting.

[The Hawk]

I totally agree, he did himself proud and was very very brave in the process. Maybe in defeat he can gain some meaningful fights at his own weight and with good time to get ready for them.

Well done to him, he was a credit to the event and was not just there to make up the card. He gave it his all

[KOJOE90]

Okay, he was out of his depth against a world class Light welter at the days notcie. However, he did okay and FOUGHT with plenty of heart.

I would love to see him back at his normal weight (and with some notice) taking on the top British lightweights. Cook vs Pedersen would be quite interesting.

Totally agree, I had just come on line to say the same thing.

[Dynamite Dean Phillips]

Okay, he was out of his depth against a world class Light welter at the days notcie. However, he did okay and FOUGHT with plenty of heart.

I would love to see him back at his normal weight (and with some notice) taking on the top British lightweights. Cook vs Pedersen would be quite interesting.

Yes, he showed plenty of courage...those body shots ripped him apart though....but then again, they would seeing as Pederson was a blown up super feather-cum-lightweight and Hatton was a big light welter.

I wonder how Hatton would cope with someone throwing equally as menacing shots back at him....it's easy to beat up smaller guys who are on the back foot and out of their depth. I for one wasn't impressed....okay, it wasn't Hatton's fault that Pinto pulled out, but if I were in Hatton's boat, and was offered a blown up super feather-cum-lightweight as a replacement, I would have turned it down and demanded a light welter.

[bennie]

Okay, he was out of his depth against a world class Light welter at the days notcie. However, he did okay and FOUGHT with plenty of heart.

I would love to see him back at his normal weight (and with some notice) taking on the top British lightweights. Cook vs Pedersen would be quite interesting.

Yes, he showed plenty of courage...those body shots ripped him apart though....but then again, they would seeing as Pederson was a blown up super feather-cum-lightweight and Hatton was a big light welter.

I wonder how Hatton would cope with someone throwing equally as menacing shots back at him....it's easy to beat up smaller guys who are on the back foot and out of their depth. I for one wasn't impressed....okay, it wasn't Hatton's fault that Pinto pulled out, but if I were in Hatton's boat, and was offered a blown up super feather-cum-lightweight as a replacement, I would have turned it down and demanded a light welter.

Agreed. I found the whole excercise pointless and cynical. If a big opponent falls through, don't insult the boxing public by bringing in an old lightweight. Cancel the fight. I'm sure, we would have respected Warren more if he'd faced the cameras last Wednesday and said: "I just can't find anyone good enough at this late notice." But to bring in a guy with absolutely no chance of winning, was horrible. The whole show was horrible.

[dondada]

Where could you have got a genuine light-welter who could make 140 in 72 hours?

A possibility would have been to allow someone to come in over the limit and not have the WBU belt up, but we all know money talks.

[bennie]

Where could you have got a genuine light-welter who could make 140 in 72 hours?

Emanuel Augustus fought the day before (April 2). He would have taken the fight, and put up a better fight, too.

[steve689]

Augustus pulled off a win as well which proves he would have been a live opponent, his record is deceiving because despite a lot of losses he has mixed it in good class. Pedersen was brave but outgunned, size was an issue as he looked like a Lightweight at best. Like a previous poster stated he should get invited back to tackle some of our Lightweights.

[stujones]

Yes I agree, I think Witter missed a great opportunity at the press conference to really kick up a fuss - especially as Pedersen didn't show. I not sure many world class Light Welter's would have risked a lot at 2 days notice, and was pleasantly shocked that Witter said he would have fought. Emmanuel Augustus would have been quite an interesting fight - I haven't seen him recently, but he used to be a right box of tricks. Yes, both would have been better than Pedersen.

However, look at it from Hatton's point of view - he had trained for a rangy, big, agressive, banger. I'm sure ideally he would have trained on different tactics to fight someone like Witter, and probably Augustus. How bad would it have looked if Ricky lost and, as history has shown, it is often as awkard for the trained fighter to adjust to fight the subsitute (after preparing for a different style) as it is for the substitute. I agree, cancelling the card might have been a good call, but then there are some world class fighters that travelled from America expecting some £££, what about them.

Now, I'm sure Hatton could beat our domestic Light Welters at whatever notice, but is that as pointless an exercise as Pedersen was?

What I would have done is provided Hatton with an opponent (like Pedersen) and then offered a full refund for the fans disspointed and didn't wish to attend the fight. Has Ricky said, most of his fans would pay to doller to see him fight Mr Blobby, if the card was cancelled you'd have most of Manchester upset. It is pretty much a lose-lose which ever approach you take, although I think the offer of a full refund should have been available (perhaps it was) - I personally, would pay to see a rock concert if the lead singer couldn't sing - and I think I would have wanted a refund if I'd bought a ticket for Saturday's show.

Back to Pedersen, I did say Pedersen vs Cook would be interesting, what about Pedersen vs Phillips??

[J]

Okay, he was out of his depth against a world class Light welter at the days notcie. However, he did okay and FOUGHT with plenty of heart.

I would love to see him back at his normal weight (and with some notice) taking on the top British lightweights. Cook vs Pedersen would be quite interesting.

Yes, he showed plenty of courage...those body shots ripped him apart though....but then again, they would seeing as Pederson was a blown up super feather-cum-lightweight and Hatton was a big light welter.

I wonder how Hatton would cope with someone throwing equally as menacing shots back at him....it's easy to beat up smaller guys who are on the back foot and out of their depth. I for one wasn't impressed....okay, it wasn't Hatton's fault that Pinto pulled out, but if I were in Hatton's boat, and was offered a blown up super feather-cum-lightweight as a replacement, I would have turned it down and demanded a light welter.

Agreed. I found the whole excercise pointless and cynical. If a big opponent falls through, don't insult the boxing public by bringing in an old lightweight. Cancel the fight. I'm sure, we would have respected Warren more if he'd faced the cameras last Wednesday and said: "I just can't find anyone good enough at this late notice." But to bring in a guy with absolutely no chance of winning, was horrible. The whole show was horrible.

I WOULD HAVE BEEN DISTRAUGHT IF THEY HAD CANCELLED IT.
I had wicked weekend and top time I thought Pederson did really well, and if as most rteports are coming through then it was Pinto's fault that he dropped out then what are you to do? The undercard was fine, the mitchell was a good one, Gomez won easily, was gutted that I missed most the barnes fight that was on far too early but only a slight moan.
Pederson fought with plenty of heart and bravery, Hatton also was carryng a hip injury apparently, possibly anoither reason they didnt want to put him in with someone too testing *note not to the detriment of pederson.
Bloke was a credit. Think you only have to look at what happened when Arthur fought Kizza he didnt want to know. That was horrible this bill for my part, while not being sensational from a boxing fan's was more than enough to keep them happy.
The other thing is, this is a massive venue, this isnt like going to a smaller hall, that is probably 75% knowledgable interested boxing fans. Hatton is a phenomenon up there, and a vast majority of the crowd are there to see HIM win. If they had cancelled it there would have been a lot of dissapointed Hatton fans who arent necessarily mad on boxing in general. Thats not ot any detriment of the crowd at the MEN. But you could tell. Stadium was still half empty 15 mins before that Hatton fight and then rammed from there on in.
And what an atmosphere they provided made the hairs on my neck stand up.

[jamesmcdonnell]

There is no way that show could be cancelled, if they pulled ricky from the bill people would have gone apeshit and demanded their money back, which would have been a disaster, plus showtime wouldn't have been too pleased.

Emmanuel Augustus fought for the IBC title, which he won against Alex Trujillo, I doubt he would have given up that minor title to get his ribs bashed in against Hatton, not at such short notice anyway.

Hatton did what he had to, he won by convincing stoppage, and that's fair enough.

He should though take on Mitchell next, there's no point pussyfooting around any more.

[bennie]

Emmanuel Augustus fought for the IBC title, which he won against Alex Trujillo, I doubt he would have given up that minor title to get his ribs bashed in against Hatton, not at such short notice anyway.

Augustus takes all his fights late. He even took the Trujillo fight late I believe. He would have come over for the money Warren must have paid Pedersen. And would have been an excellent opponent for Hatton.

[knockout]

Emmanuel Augustus fought for the IBC title, which he won against Alex Trujillo, I doubt he would have given up that minor title to get his ribs bashed in against Hatton, not at such short notice anyway.

Augustus takes all his fights late. He even took the Trujillo fight late I believe. He would have come over for the money Warren must have paid Pedersen. And would have been an excellent opponent for Hatton.

the trouble is when a fighter comes from another continent they have to be here earlier!! thats why at late notice a euro fighter is better.
by the time they knew pinto wasnt coming they had to look for a euro opponent