BoxRec

Pugilist-specialist wrote:

Dead Mouse wrote:

Parson Cross wrote:Worked with who ? Wazza or Ricky ?
Wazza wanted this, Hatton allegedly wanted it in his contract then when it was game on .............
Why would it have stank to high heaven ? This jibe is boring now.

It was nailed on to be a poor fight. There was a small window of opportunity, it closed and Hatton made his intentions clear, he wanted to fight Mayweather and headed towards that fight. There were other aspects, selling it to the networks etc. and there were a number of reasons why it didn't happen. Billy Graham said he wouldn't relish the fight for a number of reasons, but that he would have taken Hatton into it confident of victory. But, again, there was a need to build Hatton's profile to help him head to fights on the world level, a domestic skirmish with someone who brought loads of negatives, more so than the names you're about to throw up, to the table.

The general charge leveled, that Hatton swerved this one, is ludicrous.

Hatton was the height of Witter's ambition, Tszyu, and later Mayweather, was the height of Hatton's, which is why they had wildly contrasting careers.

Selling it to the networks can not be used as an excuse when Hatton boxed Bailey, Pendleton, Smith etc.

Didn't Witter even offer to box him for free at one point?

Yeah and there was probably as much truth to that as there was to the fight being written into Hatton's contract.

Bottom line is Witter was bad box office. He never lived up to his potential, I'm not doubting his skills but he was in some appalling fights and was responsible for a lot of them. A lot of times back then I went back to give him another shot and found myself frustrated by him and disappointed.

Yeah he would have had a puncher's chance vs Hatton but always presented more risk than reward, and that business equation is the only factor. It's not about whether Hatton fancied the fight or didn't, it just never would have made business sense. Witter should have focussed on unifying the division himself so Hatton had to fight him, but he never made his name calling out anyone else. He talked about Hatton's career more than his own, was involved in rubbish fights and gave Hatton every reason not to fight him. Hatton may have ducked Witter but I genuinely can't see it was purely because he thought he'd lose.

I wonder how Junior handles it all as he goes into retirement. Seriously. He craved the fight for years, was almost obsessed with it, and was very confident of victory yet ended up in Prizefighter while Rick was relaxing, a multi millionaire. He can't even be content in the knowledge everyone knows Ricky ducked him, because outside Wincobank and us lot, nobody knows who he is. I am not trying to be harsh here either, but it must eat him up a lot. People were not even bothered when he had the WBC belt.

mickey1975 wrote:I wonder how Junior handles it all as he goes into retirement. Seriously. He craved the fight for years, was almost obsessed with it, and was very confident of victory yet ended up in Prizefighter while Rick was relaxing, a multi millionaire. He can't even be content in the knowledge everyone knows Ricky ducked him, because outside Wincobank and us lot, nobody knows who he is. I am not trying to be harsh here either, but it must eat him up a lot. People were not even bothered when he had the WBC belt.

Your making Ricky's retirement sound idyllic - and Junior has not retired yet mickey!

http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/boxing/s ... -1-5564810

Dead Mouse wrote:
Hatton swerved this one

I did nothing. However Witter did reach the top of his profession, which judging by your poor comeback and the way you string words together is something that you will not do.

You can't rewrite history. He was offered the fight on more than one occasion but chose to box easier opponents.

Pugilist-specialist wrote:

Dead Mouse wrote:
Hatton swerved this one

I did nothing. However Witter did reach the top of his profession, which judging by your poor comeback and the way you string words together is something that you will not do.

You can't rewrite history. He was offered the fight on more than one occasion but chose to box easier opponents.

Which one do you think was worse, Hatton swerving Witter or Kid Galahad swerving Jazza?

Pugilist-specialist wrote:

mickey1975 wrote:I wonder how Junior handles it all as he goes into retirement. Seriously. He craved the fight for years, was almost obsessed with it, and was very confident of victory yet ended up in Prizefighter while Rick was relaxing, a multi millionaire. He can't even be content in the knowledge everyone knows Ricky ducked him, because outside Wincobank and us lot, nobody knows who he is. I am not trying to be harsh here either, but it must eat him up a lot. People were not even bothered when he had the WBC belt.

Your making Ricky's retirement sound idyllic - and Junior has not retired yet mickey!

http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/boxing/s ... -1-5564810

Junior must be jealous to death though. I doubt he has much left of his ring earnings and hardly any fans like him because they all love Ricky!
P.S a couple of my mates met him on holiday and said he was a great guy and nothing like he comes across on camera.

mickey1975 wrote:

Pugilist-specialist wrote:

Dead Mouse wrote:
Hatton swerved this one

I did nothing. However Witter did reach the top of his profession, which judging by your poor comeback and the way you string words together is something that you will not do.

You can't rewrite history. He was offered the fight on more than one occasion but chose to box easier opponents.

Which one do you think was worse, Hatton swerving Witter or Kid Galahad swerving Jazza?

The rivalry must be maintained for years not weeks, Barry must then claim that he's had the fight written into his contract, offer to fight him in a car park, then keep moving the goalposts and then start referring to himself in the third person before he reaches the Man of the People's level on the swervometer.