How do you rate Ricky Hattons career?

[TheLeprechaun]

For me, Hatton is still pretty overrated.

First of all, I never really rated Tszyu as highly as some did. People were saying he was elite p4p level but his best wins were just Mitchell and Judah and he struggled quite a bit with Mitchell. He was beaten up and stopped by Vince Phillips, dropped a few times in other fights by mediocre fighters too. Looked bad against Jesse James Leija and then Gatti blased Leija into retirement. People used to say he was a good challenger for Mayweather back then but I think Mayweather would have hit him at will.

Hatton basically fought a whos who of old men and past prime fighters in Manchester with his pet referee mickey vann officiating.

I also thought the very average Collazo deserved the decision against him. He lost practically every round to Floyd and we know what happened vs Pacman.

So how good was Hatton really? He was very limited and one dimensional.

I'm not sure I'd pick him in his prime over Terry Flanagan and even Jack Catterall.

[jamamb]

do you think catterall and flanagan are better than tszyu

[Nightmare Roy]

He had a great career, the Kosta fight was amazing, he fought like a man possessed, he lost against two GOAT's and made a fortune.

[TheLeprechaun]

do you think catterall and flanagan are better than tszyu

Tszyu was a stellar amateur, very highly regarded. His defense was very amateur like - he relied a lot on his left hand controlling distance and moving back into countering range. Problem was he got sloppy with this after a few rounds. He fought like a well schooled euro amateur. I have watched a few of his fights again recently. He didn't like good pressure and was stopped twice and struggled in other fights. I don't think he had a plan B for someone being able to get inside and rough him up. Hatton had the perfect style to beat him. The likes of Maidana/Matthyse/Castillo/Corrales types I think are terrible styles for Tszyu. If someone stands off and allowed Tszyu to set up his offence and take his time then he could be devastating but at the same time, his defence was there to be countered so I don't think Mayweather would have had a problem with him. I recall many saying that Floyd was avoiding him.

Based on their styles I give Caterall and Flanagan especially good chances of beating Hatton. I'd say Tszyu beats both of them though. They wouldn't bring the pressure and intensity that Hatton did.

[emallini]

[Sklar]

I rate Ricky's career as excellent. He couldn't have got anymore out of himself than he did. Unlike, say, Michael Gomez who hugely underachieved. Rick was just a notch below the very best in the world during his era.

[Bigdogsnose]

great fighter with a very good career. I think he paid the price for chasing mayweather up to welterweight. Lost a lot of a advantages doing so, should have stayed at LWW after the Tszyu fight. That said his KO of Castillo was one of his career highlights.

Was Cotto a LWW at that time? would have been a great fight.

[stujones]

The only slightly frustrating element of Hatton's career was the length of time he was WBU champion - quite possibly his own best years was when he was fighting for that title. I remember them really hyping Hatton as the biggest, most viable, challenger to the Judah / Tszyu winner - yet that was 2001. We had to wait another 4 years for it to happen.

He should have fought the likes of Gatti, Mitchell, Harries etc before Tszyu.

The man was 28 and an 8 year pro before his first proper world title challenge - this should have happened at least 2 years before. He was ready for a least a "proper" version of a world title (if not Tszyu) in 2001/2002. Those three/four years would have made a lot of difference. Instead, he crammed in a lot of pretty decent world title fights - there was no "oh he is not worthy to challenge" type opponent in his resume post Tszyu. Subsequently, burned himself out. A lot of the fighters he fought between 2001 and 2005 would have been worthy "geniune" title opponents, so a shame he didn't have these for as geniune world title defenses.

Fought the best, beat some of the best, lost to two ATG at their pomp - no shame. Did more in many ways than Calzaghe, but a shame he didn't do more before. He started looking a bit stale in the Maussa fight.

[dookus]

Great fighter in some ways (I have still never seen anyone close distance with the speed and precision that Hatton could), middling in others. Best performance was arguably v Tackie when he put all the skills on display. Fell in love with his chin / power after Tszyu and I don't think we ever saw him box to his potential after that fight.

[bigjack]

Overrated for me,Beat an aging,inactive Tszyu and slowly went down hill afterwards.He spent too long defending a mickey mouse title before stepping up,fair play though he beat the long reigning champion instead of claiming a vacant title and then had some decent level wins against either slightly faded or non threatening challengers,i thought he lost against Collazo as he couldn't do anything to prevent getting hit with southpaw right hooks all night.He made himself a lot of money with his skills but the lack of dedication in between fights shortened his career somewhat.

[Stuarty]

Flanagan and Catterall against a prime Hatton I've seen it all on here now!

He had a great career and as a boxer I feel he was quite underrated. His footwork was good, excellent body punching and very good at creating angles to get his shots away. If he'd have looked after himself between fights he might've been even better than he was but he had a fantastic career.

[Stuarty]

Great fighter in some ways (I have still never seen anyone close distance with the speed and precision that Hatton could), middling in others. Best performance was arguably v Tackie when he put all the skills on display. Fell in love with his chin / power after Tszyu and I don't think we ever saw him box to his potential after that fight.

Fair comment mate

[Stuarty]

great fighter with a very good career. I think he paid the price for chasing mayweather up to welterweight. Lost a lot of a advantages doing so, should have stayed at LWW after the Tszyu fight. That said his KO of Castillo was one of his career highlights.

Was Cotto a LWW at that time? would have been a great fight.

At that time I fancied Hatton strongly against Cotto. Another good fight that got away unfortunately.

[Crease]

How do you rate Ricky Hattons career?

For me, I'd say that Ricky did excellent. He unified the Light Welterweight division, moved up to become a 2-weight World Champion and only had 2 losses (in his prime-ish) against 2 All-Time Great fighters (FMJ & PAC).

There are a couple of fights I would have liked to have seen him in - a bout with Junior Witter would have been interesting, and I would have loved to have seen him and Cotto have a brawl in the middle of the ring.

But listen, no fighter can do everything. And Ricky did excellent with his career, big fights, big titles, big money.

[Taansend]

He ducked Matthew Hatton

[Horse]

Ricky Hatton

Kostya Tszyu
Paulie Malignaggi
Jose Luis Castillo
Luis Collazo
Vince Phillips
Floyd Mayweather Jr - (Lost)
Juan Urango
Carlos Maussa
Eamonn Magee
Juan Lazcano


After his great win against Tszyu his reign as champion was pretty disappointing.

He always seemed to have an excuse to take on a lesser opponent, often with the suggestion that it would help to build up bigger fights to follow.

Maussa - Unification, then drops both titles.
Collazo - Chance to get a belt at a 2nd weight, then drops the title.
Urango - Just dropped back down a division and getting his belt back, then drops the title.
Castillo - Big-ish fight against washed-up opponent.
Lazcano - Comeback fight after losing to Mayweather.
Malignaggi - Was rated as the No. 1 contender by a lot of people for some reason.

Those wins are all good, but none of them look all that great now and they weren't all that great at the time either. There were always better opponents and he should have been fighting them instead.

[moogie101]

Always gutted he avoided Witter, but he was a nightmare matchup for anyone to look good against so kinda understood why.

Also wish he'd been more disciplined &avoided ballooning up so much in-between fights, surely half his fight camps must have just been about getting back in fighting shape rather than focusing on an opponent?

Overall though a solid career, he has some great wins on his record, its very easy to look at opponents years later & deride them but he could have stayed at light-welter & likely retired undefeated but he stepped up & became a two-weight champion. This led to losses to both Mayweather & Pacman in their primes but those are hardly a black mark on anyone's career.

[East End]

Something of a wasted talent due to his lack of discipline between camps. That may seem a harsh assessment for a two-weight world champion but Hatton could have maintained a far longer in-ring career had he 'lived the life' rather than knocking back the pints and letting his weight balloon.
I agree with the OP's opinion of Tszyu. I always regarded him as a good solid world champion rather than a great one. However, the high quality of Hatton's performance against him cannot be denied. Did Ricky lose a degree of his drive and ambition after that memorable night in June 2005? Possibly.
After he won a unification fight against something of a paper champion in Carlos Maussa later that year, the natural fight to make, and the one for which fans were clamouring, was Hatton-Cotto. Sadly, that joined the all too long list of potentially great fights that never happened. I believe Cotto would have beaten Ricky but that is a subject that divides opinion.
Hatton, like Naseem Hamed before him, did not appear to travel well. His performances in America by and large lacked the electrifying spark that fighting in front of a home crowd always seemed to give him. He did an impressive number on Jose Luis Castillo in 2007 but it could be argued that Castillo was already something of a spent force. I thought Ricky did give a good account of himself in defeat against Mayweather. He was simply overcome by the better boxer. I am not sure whether even Floyd would have beaten the version of Pacquiao that flattened Ricky so I don't think there was any shame in that defeat.
Ricky was still only 30 at the time of the Pacquiao fight and that brings me back to my opening paragraph. Rather than trying an almost token gesture comeback and losing to the mediocre Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012, Hatton could well have rebounded fairly quickly from the loss to Manny and challenged the same Russian for the WBA strap when he still had the beating of him. Andre Berto and Dejan Zavec also held versions of the welterweight title around that time. I firmly believe a fit and fully focused Hatton would have had the beating of them also. If only he had 'lived the life'. But then, how many other fighters throughout history has that been said about?

[Horse]

Missed fights:

140 lbs

Cotto
Witter
Gatti
Torres
Bradley
Kotelnik
Rees
Khan
Maidana
Harris

Alexander
Mitchell
Holt
Marquez - 135 lbs
Casamayor - 135 lbs
Corrales - 135 lbs
Freitas - 135 lbs
Valero - 135 lbs
Diaz - 135 lbs
Katsidis - 135 lbs


147 lbs

Judah
Mosley
Margarito
Williams
De La Hoya
Mayorga
Spinks
Cintron
Baldomir
Berto


Some of those wouldn't have been better opponents than those I mentioned in my previous post, but a lot of them would have been.

[Boxerbeetle]

Flanagan and Catterall would beat Hatton

[stujones]

Flanagan and Catterall would beat Hatton

And O Hara Davies.

[Jackson328]

I rate Ricky's career as excellent. He couldn't have got anymore out of himself than he did. Unlike, say, Michael Gomez who hugely underachieved. Rick was just a notch below the very best in the world during his era.

Good post, he had a great career. He only lost to two p4p ATGs and vs Floyd he had all the odds against him - Vegas, American ref, fighting at 147 when in reality Hatton was still a light-welter. He always gave great value and for all his flaws he was always one of the lads, would have liked to see him vs Gatti in their primes at 140 too. I don't know why the Witter fight never happened but I suppose we have to take it that Hatton just didn't like him and didn't want to give him the payday although some will always maintain that he ducked Witter.

[Horse]

although some will always maintain that he ducked Witter.

He did duck him.

[rd350lc]

He was fantastic imo , one of the best fighters of his generation to come from our shores .

His body punching was standout and all the Witter talk is pish , in his prime Ricky would have beaten him .

[Jackson328]

although some will always maintain that he ducked Witter.

He did duck him.

Maybe he did. Can't remember if Witter was ever a mandatory for Hatton. Witter won the WBC at 140 and Hatton the IBF but I don't blame Ricky for chasing the dollars at that time, Witter just didn't sell tickets