Ricky Hatton v Arturo Gatti

[thunderfromdownunder]

at 140 lbs obviously. tough one to pick imo...

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Hatton would mutilate him. That's a level too high for Gatti.

[Ketchel]

Before Hatton fought Tzsyu he was offered both Gatti and Ward. allegedly stated that he did not want those fights as he was worried that Hatton would get cut and therefore scupper the title fight. Gatti and Ward went on to have their 3 fight thrilogy. Would have loved to have seen either of them in with Hatton.

[dempseyfire]

Gatti was not on that level. Hatton TKO 10.

[Ambling Alp]

I guess I will have to go with Gatti. Didn't have that good of a defense, but he could punch, had some boxing ability, and a lot of heart. Should be enough to win a decision or maybe late round TKO.

[LeedsLad]

Hatton by wide decision/late corner stoppage.

He'd box a fair bit and counterpunch, using the in and out style that we saw from him before he turned all ''hook and hold'' towards the end.

Hatton vs Ward would be a better fight IMO, even though Gatti was the better of the two warriors.

[thunderfromdownunder]

wow, i thought more people would favour Gatti. i would maybe lean toward Hatton but its still a pick em.
im not sure what level people think Hatton was on, but i dont think he was lightyears above Gatti. Arturo would have a great chance at winning this

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Hatton was on a level that he beat Kostya Tszyu. Gatti could never take a round from him. I find it hard to see Arturo winning one out of ten here.

[Diamond WEAPON]

The Tzsyu fight was pretty much the end of Hatton's prime but the fact remains that even though he was hittable, his style would've been bad for Gatti, because he would be smothering Gatti's bombs from start to finish while hammering every part of his body and possibly his balls if Gatti DID manage to hurt him. Arturo at his best could actually box a bit and at the very least was an offensively adept fighter against most kinds of opponents, but the problem is Hatton wouldn't give him enough opportunities to land flush and Gatti would be stuck with the Englishman in his grill as soon as the first bell rang.

I'd be rooting for Gatti but Hatton would take him out in the late rounds even though Gatti would get some solid licks in.

[gilgamesh]

I think Gatti could make a fight of it in the early going but I agree Hatton was just a bit too much for him. I don't think he'd stop Gatti, but I do expect he'd win a pretty lopsided decision with scores of like 117-111 or 118-110, and I agree Gatti would probably be taking a serious beating by the end of the fight.

[Westside Villain]

Hatton doesn't lose to C level fighters.

[thunderfromdownunder]

bit rough to label gatti a c level fighter

[clubberlang]

Hatton would hammer Gatti, I loved Gatti but he wasn’t at that level.

[Ambling Alp]

wow, i thought more people would favour Gatti. i would maybe lean toward Hatton but its still a pick em.
im not sure what level people think Hatton was on, but i dont think he was lightyears above Gatti. Arturo would have a great chance at winning this

Well, you have a couple of things going on.
First, apparently because of his "big win" over a past it Kosta Tzsyu some people think Hatton was some kind of elite fighter. He simply wasn't. He is greatly overrated.
2nd, on this Forum it is fashionable to rip Gatti. Perhaps it's because of his losses late in his career that people seem to remember. He wasn't a great, but he certainly was not a "C" level fighter.

Really is what you have is two guys who were good but nowhere near great. Neither could compete with the truly great fighters of their era. Both could and did beat the "C" level fighters that they fought. They were on the same level and probably would have had a very competitive fight against each other.

[Diamond WEAPON]

Well, you have a couple of things going on.
First, apparently because of his "big win" over a past it Kosta Tzsyu some people think Hatton was some kind of elite fighter. He simply wasn't. He is greatly overrated.
2nd, on this Forum it is fashionable to rip Gatti. Perhaps it's because of his losses late in his career that people seem to remember. He wasn't a great, but he certainly was not a "C" level fighter.

Really is what you have is two guys who were good but nowhere near great. Neither could compete with the truly great fighters of their era. Both could and did beat the "C" level fighters that they fought. They were on the same level and probably would have had a very competitive fight against each other.

Excellent points Alp and I agree. Hatton is pretty badly overrated. He and Gatti were closer in skill level than most would like to admit. Personally I picked Hatton if they clashed because I think his smothering style is a bad one for Gatti because it would allow Hatton too many opportunities to recover if stunned and generally not give Gatti enough space to really leverage the bombs that he could do the most damage with.

[JCS]

At first, I thought Hatton. After dwelling on it, I learn more toward Gatti.

In the end, maybe this fight is that close.

[dempseyfire]

wow, i thought more people would favour Gatti. i would maybe lean toward Hatton but its still a pick em.
im not sure what level people think Hatton was on, but i dont think he was lightyears above Gatti. Arturo would have a great chance at winning this

Well, you have a couple of things going on.
First, apparently because of his "big win" over a past it Kosta Tzsyu some people think Hatton was some kind of elite fighter. He simply wasn't. He is greatly overrated.
2nd, on this Forum it is fashionable to rip Gatti. Perhaps it's because of his losses late in his career that people seem to remember. He wasn't a great, but he certainly was not a "C" level fighter.

Really is what you have is two guys who were good but nowhere near great. Neither could compete with the truly great fighters of their era. Both could and did beat the "C" level fighters that they fought. They were on the same level and probably would have had a very competitive fight against each other.

Sorry, wins over Tsyzu (who has looked great in his previous win over Mitchell, so he certainly wasn't so past it as to poo-poo on that victory), Paulie Walnuts, Castillo, Phillips, and being competitive early with Floyd is far better than anything Gatti ever did, whose only true win vs a world class guy was vs Patterson (I'm not going to count the W over a past-it, severely undersized Ruelas). Hatton not elite? Was Angel Manfredy elite? B/c he kicked Gatti's ass.

They are definitely not on the same level. Hatton was a legit world class fighter with a W over a Hall of Famer in Tsyzu. Gatti was a good TV fighter who beat some fringe contenders and vs the true elite (and some not so elite) got absolutely STEAM-ROLLED.

[thunderfromdownunder]

wow, i thought more people would favour Gatti. i would maybe lean toward Hatton but its still a pick em.
im not sure what level people think Hatton was on, but i dont think he was lightyears above Gatti. Arturo would have a great chance at winning this

Well, you have a couple of things going on.
First, apparently because of his "big win" over a past it Kosta Tzsyu some people think Hatton was some kind of elite fighter. He simply wasn't. He is greatly overrated.
2nd, on this Forum it is fashionable to rip Gatti. Perhaps it's because of his losses late in his career that people seem to remember. He wasn't a great, but he certainly was not a "C" level fighter.

Really is what you have is two guys who were good but nowhere near great. Neither could compete with the truly great fighters of their era. Both could and did beat the "C" level fighters that they fought. They were on the same level and probably would have had a very competitive fight against each other.

Sorry, wins over Tsyzu (who has looked great in his previous win over Mitchell, so he certainly wasn't so past it as to poo-poo on that victory), Paulie Walnuts, Castillo, Phillips, and being competitive early with Floyd is far better than anything Gatti ever did, whose only true win vs a world class guy was vs Patterson (I'm not going to count the W over a past-it, severely undersized Ruelas). Hatton not elite? Was Angel Manfredy elite? B/c he kicked Gatti's ass.

They are definitely not on the same level. Hatton was a legit world class fighter with a W over a Hall of Famer in Tsyzu. Gatti was a good TV fighter who beat some fringe contenders and vs the true elite (and some not so elite) got absolutely STEAM-ROLLED.

castillio was past it. So was tszyu. Hatton was the one who was steamrolled when he fought the (peak) elite. He was lucky to win two rounds against mayweather, and they were the rounds Floyd just let him have. I like hatton but there is no way imo he is an "elite" fighter. Very good yes. Falls very short against the very best

[dempseyfire]

Well, you have a couple of things going on.
First, apparently because of his "big win" over a past it Kosta Tzsyu some people think Hatton was some kind of elite fighter. He simply wasn't. He is greatly overrated.
2nd, on this Forum it is fashionable to rip Gatti. Perhaps it's because of his losses late in his career that people seem to remember. He wasn't a great, but he certainly was not a "C" level fighter.

Really is what you have is two guys who were good but nowhere near great. Neither could compete with the truly great fighters of their era. Both could and did beat the "C" level fighters that they fought. They were on the same level and probably would have had a very competitive fight against each other.

Sorry, wins over Tsyzu (who has looked great in his previous win over Mitchell, so he certainly wasn't so past it as to poo-poo on that victory), Paulie Walnuts, Castillo, Phillips, and being competitive early with Floyd is far better than anything Gatti ever did, whose only true win vs a world class guy was vs Patterson (I'm not going to count the W over a past-it, severely undersized Ruelas). Hatton not elite? Was Angel Manfredy elite? B/c he kicked Gatti's ass.

They are definitely not on the same level. Hatton was a legit world class fighter with a W over a Hall of Famer in Tsyzu. Gatti was a good TV fighter who beat some fringe contenders and vs the true elite (and some not so elite) got absolutely STEAM-ROLLED.

castillio was past it. So was tszyu. Hatton was the one who was steamrolled when he fought the (peak) elite. He was lucky to win two rounds against mayweather, and they were the rounds Floyd just let him have. I like hatton but there is no way imo he is an "elite" fighter. Very good yes. Falls very short against the very best

Castillo and Tyszu were not in their prime but not so "past it" as to dismiss those wins . .they were both still dangerous world class fighters, especially Tsyzu, the guy was still definitely an elite fighter.

Floyd "let Hatton" win 2 rounds . . now you are sound ridiculous. I gave Hatton I think at least 3 rounds . . he gave Floyd lots of trouble early on, whereas Gatti didn't give Floyd as much trouble as Floyd's sparring partners. And can you imagine Gatti in with Pacquao . . Gatti would be sent out of the ring on a stretcher in the first.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Some of you really think Gatti could beat Hatton? Really!?

Hell. No. And what is this nonsense they're on the same level? It's a minority view in this thread, but a sizeable minority. Tsk, tsk.

[Ambling Alp]

Yes because some of us don't believe that Hatton was that good and that Gatti was not that bad.

demspeyfire-Gatti loss to Manfredy is a fair point against him. However some of your other points are silly:

-You give credit for Hatton for beating Phillips? Really? Phillips was almost 40 years old at the time. If you are going to do that, you have to give credit to Gatti for knocking out Jessie James Leija. Also have to count his win over Calvin Grove.

-Tzsyu was almost 34 and had one fight in the last 2 years. You could see him slipping as early as the Urkal fight.

-Outside of Tzsyu, the best you can come up with is "Paulie Walnuts", an old Castillo, and an ancient Phillips. That speaks volumes about Hatton's "victims" list.
Beating Ruelas, Ward and Dorin is more impressive than that. And Tracey Patterson was a very good fighter who Gatti beat twice.

-Ruelas was undersized? They fought at 130. Much of his career was at this weight and above it.

-Hatton was not much more competitive than Gatti was against Mayweather. And Gatti was certainly not as close to his prime as Hatton was.

-You think Pacman would have knocked Gatti out in one round? Easy to say since they never fought. I don't think so. Pac has not knocked anyone out in the first round in 9 years.

Even if he had knccoked Gatti out in the first round, what does that prove? Hatton actually did fight him and got knocked out in two rounds. Does lasting until the 2nd round really impress anybody?

[dempseyfire]

-Outside of Tzsyu, the best you can come up with is "Paulie Walnuts", an old Castillo, and an ancient Phillips. That speaks volumes about Hatton's "victims" list.
Beating Ruelas, Ward and Dorin is more impressive than that.

-Hatton was not much more competitive than Gatti was against Mayweather.
?

those 2 comments above, I'll just let them speak for themselves. No retort needed.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Kostya is conveniently past it to suit an argument. And nobody is saying Hatton was an alltime great, but he damn sure was better than Gatti. So was Cornelius-Boza Edwards. Arturo is one of the more romanticized fighters in history. A warrior indeed, but there have been thousands that delivered the same kind of guts and action that don't get overrated like he does.

I'll tell you what, the "past it" Tszyu that Hatton beat would have put Gatti in the Hospital.

LOL at getting destroyed by Pacquaio being some kind of a point in a fight against a guy who was slaughtered by Angel Manfredy & Carlos Baldomir.

Alp is one of the more difficult posters to debate. He is a chameleon that changes his view points and style to suit whatever fighter he likes in that particular discussion. The only consistency is that he will never be consistent.

[Diamond WEAPON]

Gatti was fighting too long and against an opponent too big in Baldomir, who I think would've battered Hatton too. Hatton wouldn't have hurt Baldomir a bit.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Gatti was fighting too long and against an opponent too big in Baldomir, who I think would've battered Hatton too. Hatton wouldn't have hurt Baldomir a bit.

I'd take Hatton there, but no he wouldn't hurt him. Either way, Gatti has no chance here. I won a lot of money on baldomir & Gomez against Arturo.