Lets talk about facts then as I do love a good fact. How much time did Lee Beard actually spend on the pads with Ricky in the build up to Lazcano?Facts are facts. Everyone said that Lee Beard coming in was going to act as some kind of revolutionary change. In reality he has worked with Matt for a good few fights and worked with Hatton prior to the Lazcano fight, as shown on Sky, and neither fighter impressed massively.
Cannot agree with that statement, if Lee had been working on fighting a specific way then come fight night Billy read the fight his way and gave Matthew his take on what things he should be doing to win the fight then thats when it becomes a problem, as Matthew trained for specific combos etc and movement and then Billy is going against that giving advice to load up with single shots etcGraham gave Matt advice between rounds but if, as claimed, the gym work was done by Lee then surely the blame lies with Lee? Matt started off badly in round one and that must be down to the man who did the bulk of his work pre-fight. Matthew himself stated he did very little with Graham so that leaves Beard as the man responsible for aspects of the performance. Plus the fact Watson boxed very well.
Again, Beard can only be judged in my opinion if he has had adequate time to spend with Hatton, the rumour I heared was that this wasnt much due to Grahams unwillingness to take any sort of back seat.Same goes for Hatton versus Lazcano. They said on Sky that Lee was brought in to shore up the defence and get the combination punching going.
I dont doubt Grahams past acheivements when it comes to getting Hatton through a crisis, but cynics and other arm chair fans across the world have questioned his advice in the corner most notably in the Mayweather fight.Other people took over a portion of the training schedule, and it was a very basic period of training to deal with, and the net result was a complete arse being made of the schedule and a bad chest infection for the fighter. I guess after suffering from illness in training the feeling was that having Graham in the corner on the night would be more acceptable than a second who has no experience of guiding professional fighters through a crisis. I'm not trying to do Beard down, he is a nice guy, but the facts are that if people are now painting Billy as a Sven Goran Erickson then Lee Beard is Steve McClaren, minus the success at club level.
Hattons? or Hatton? doesnt that contradict your theory of how much time Matthew spent with Beard, now that says one of two things to me, Matthew either wanted to spend more time with Beard as he felt he was getting more from it or Graham simply wasnt devoting enough time to Matthew, leaving him no option but to train with Beard. Either way, neither suggestion looks favourable towards GrahamMacklin left the camp in a splitting of ways that was agreed between both parties. The reason was, ironically, so Graham could devote more time to both Hatton's.
I hear you and certainly at this stage it doesnt look good on the Hattons and especially Ray as he has been made to look a fool. However Im a very level headed individual and like to base my opinions on situations when i have the full facts.Fair enough if it is a business decision. They get made everyday, but they tend to get made, and implemented, by professionals, as opposed to amateurs who cannot handle a simple matter, in boxing, such as firing a trainer. Graham made a statement to BBN about retiring on Monday so that he could bow out with some dignity and give Ojay Abrahams some attention. That attempt to bow out was seized upon to bury the fact that he was sacked, this in turn to protect a reputation that has been well earned by a fighter, but is now being well worn by the people supposedly working in professional business positions.
You make a fair number of points, it is your opinion and fair play. Yet the bottom line is that team Hatton is claiming that Graham did an Eskimo on himself and that it cut them to the quick, yet in reality we hear that the guy was pushed out. If there was a mix-up and Ray Hatton really values Graham so highly then surely the solution is simple? Graham returns to work and this whole thing is smoothed over by some brilliant PR. If not then we can infer that he was indeed sacked but someone lacked the clarity and conviction to do it firmly and in a professional manner.
Someone raised a very good question somewhere on this forum or another where they asked did Graham fail to tow the company line as in, lets agree to part ways and you can retire without us all having to get nasty and bring out the reasons why we had to get rid.
If I were Graham i believe that I would rather say i'd retired than I'd been sacked, after all if you get sacked then there is usually a reason, maybe the Hattons would rather not have to disclose the reasons he was sacked and the retirement line was a perfect solution, Graham has now left himself open for any reasons to possibly come out.
