From the Sunday Herald. Dear me, it's easy to see which camp 'Big Daddy' has thrown his hat into.
"BOXING: allegedly’s row with his prize fighter is harming the sport at a crucial time, says Steve Bunce
What a tiff. In one corner, Ricky Hatton, the darling of the neon ring, and in the other, dapper allegedly, the slick London boxing promoter.
During the last seven days their relationship, like a tacky tabloid sex scandal, has filled the newspapers. Everybody knew the pair had fallen out but boy is it nasty.
The history of their fantastically successful partnership began when Hatton, now 26, turned professional in September 1997 and was fed a steady diet of carefully- selected opponents. All went well and as the quality of the handpicked losers increased, so Hatton’s performances became even more impressive. In 2000, after 21 fights, Hatton won the British title, he won the World Boxing Union version in his next outing and when he last fought in June, he was making the 16th defence of the WBU belt. He is unbeaten in 39 fights.
Hatton’s last fight was what is called in the trade, a “defining fight”. He met and beat Russian-born Australian Kostya Tszyu, who also held the marginally more respectable International Boxing Federation bauble for the light- welterweight division. Tszyu was arguably the best fighter in the world but Hatton forced him to quit in front of more than 22,000 fans.
It was Warren who made the Tszyu fight a reality when most people said it would never happen. “Why would Warren risk his biggest earner in a real fight,” the doubters asked.
Warren, though, had to agree to some unusual terms with the visiting Russian emigre and his sharp-suited coterie. First, an advert for Moscow’s failed bid to stage the 2012 Olympics was all over the ring and Tszyu retained the lucrative TV rights to Russia, America and Australia. There was also a split of profits, which, considering Warren’s skills at the negotiating table, appear to support the promoter’s claim he had to make sacrifices to make Hatton’s dream come true.
So, Warren had kept his prospect unbeaten, delivered a super-fight to Hatton in his hometown and paid him £6,337,315 during the last four years. But after the fight, Hatton, pictured below, and his father Ray, a former reserve player at Manchester City and current discount carpet king of north Manchester, started to talk about being free agents. In America they spoke in public to Warren’s rival promoters and they did the same in the UK.
Warren held a dignified silence, maintaining in private he had the documents that proved Hatton still had three fights left with him. Hatton denied this and at the start of the month rumours of the split spiralled out of control.
On Monday, Hatton confirmed he was leaving Warren and would fight for Sheffield promoter Dennis Hobson in the Yorkshire city on November 26. He challenged Warren to produce a doc ument that proved they still had a deal and also denied he had made more than £6m. Warren threatened legal action, fell silent for 48 hours and then rallied.
Warren produced a contract and a letter which showed that last December Hatton signed and agreed a deal for four more world title fights. Warren also produced the annual breakdown of Hatton’s earnings. It looked like the promoter had trumped the claims of Hatton, his new promoter and their legal teams.
The scene is now set for the pair to meet in court and Warren has already applied for an injunction to stop Hatton fighting for Hobson in Sheffield. “If we have to go to court, that is what we will do,” said Hatton, who insists he will defend his IBF and WBU titles against the World Boxing Association champ ion Carlos Maussa in the November fight.
Warren, meanwhile, continues to extend an olive branch and insists he would rather avoid court and work with the fighter again. However, even in the devious business of boxing there appears to be no way the two could make up and work happily together in the future. But, that is what Hatton will have to do if Warren wins in court.
The Hatton-Warren rift comes at a time when the sport is in need of more fights like Hatton-Tszyu, which was shown on Sky pay-per-view. The shaky re-emergence of ITV, with whom Warren has an exclusive contract, had hoped to use Hatton’s victory and the steady apprenticeship of Amir Khan to build a strong following. Hatton against Maussa would have been big business on ITV. But Khan’s three appearances on ITV have been watched by ever decreasing numbers having slid from 6.3 million in May, to 4.4 million in July and 3.7 million for last weekend’s fight in Cardiff. The figures are not alarming yet, but if they continue to drop, in the absence of a real star or a real fight, there will be a problem.
Khan fights again in Glasgow on November 5 when Scott Harrison appears on ITV 1. Harrison is quality but what ITV and Warren need is Hatton back in the fold and viewing figures to increase. Sky, Hatton and Hobson are, meanwhile, happy with their lot."
I'll see if any of you want to pick up on anything in here first! 8)
