BoxRec

Jabba The Nut wrote: I just wish he would work behind his jab, like he used too. Can't fault the workrate either. I just dont like the wrestling, he might just come unstuck against an old style boxer.

Thats pretty much the one criticism/observation of concern I have of Ricky Hatton. Too often for my liking Hatton throws one jab, one right hand and them comes fully square-on and wrestles his man. In such situations Hatton used to really unload the body punches but it appears to me as though his volume of body punching has dropped whilst his grappling has increased...

However if Hatton keeps taking the proper titles off proper fighters by smashing fook out of them, then I dont really care how he wins.

To be fair, this wrestling style has only really come out in his last two fights - granted it was unnecessary against Maussa, but I don't think one messy night means he's necessarily neglecting his skills. As for Tszyu, all that mauling won him the fight as much as the relentless punching. Hatton is *still* something of an enigma in some senses - he was surprisingly wild and scrappy against Tszyu and still beat a Hall-of-Famer into submission, equally so against Maussa in a (ha ha) unification fight. One suspects that he has something better in him yet, if he can resist the urge to muscle his opponent about for large sections of his fights - he has looked bigger and stronger than ever before in these fights and perhaps he's consequently lost some of speed at mid-range.

I think that Billy Graham instructed Hatton to fight ugly against Tszyu, the Maussa fight was a case of Hatton trying a bit too hard I think. He seemed frustrated and made very hard work of Maussa despite winnning easily if that makes sense.

It is very much noticable though that Hatton doesn't focus on the body much any more. Perhaps that is because it was becoming too predictable as he used to just bang to the body every single fight.

Hatton's fight against Tackie was perhaps his best performance outside of the Tszyu fight. He boxed Tackie to a standstill and won at a canter.

Yeah I think people are over-reacting with this wrestling talk. It's common knowledge that this was a tactic to beat a specific opponent; Tszyu. Guess we'll see how he fights in his next encounter though. Which brings me on to my next point... people seem to think Hatton VS Gatti is gonna be a proper slugfest war, but from what I understand Gatti is trying to atcually box a bit more now, add that to the fact that Hatton might not wrestle, could be a totally different to fight to what some are expecting. We shall see.

jeej wrote:Yeah I think people are over-reacting with this wrestling talk. It's common knowledge that this was a tactic to beat a specific opponent; Tszyu. Guess we'll see how he fights in his next encounter though. Which brings me on to my next point... people seem to think Hatton VS Gatti is gonna be a proper slugfest war, but from what I understand Gatti is trying to atcually box a bit more now, add that to the fact that Hatton might not wrestle, could be a totally different to fight to what some are expecting. We shall see.

I was thinking that. Mind, far more accomplished boxers have tried to keep Hatton off and failed - if Gatti's still standing after a few rounds I think he may just have to try and brawl. One thing's for sure, Gatti is not going to be the zombie he was against Mayweather - Floyd was awesome, but I have rarely ever seen a fighter look as weight drained as Gatti was that night.

i appreciate all the fans of hatton getting behind him but is it just me or is all the hype a bit too much(over rated after just one fight)yes he did well and he deserved the victory but mayweather and co would put him in his place.
i reckon he should get rid of witter and then go for the big boys.