BoxRec

(I'm not looking for any arguments, just interested in your views now that his career has come to an end)


Ricky was Great to watch and he was involved in some of the BIGGEST fights that a British fighter has ever seen and possibly was the most successful ever in terms of pound notes (or Naz/Lewis).

.....but he wasted alot of his Prime not fighting the top boys in the division. He was 38-0 before he challenged for a recognised World title. IMO he wasted the 7 or 8 fights prior to that defending his dogshit title against washed up has beens (Oliveira,Tackie, Phillips) or never will-be's (Rios, Pedersen, Vilches, Stewart). Those years were a large part of his prime IMO.

I was at the MEN for his fight against Kostya Tszyu in what was surely Rickys finest hour. It's the best atmosphere I've experienced (got tingles thinking about it now). Ricky was a machine that night and it would've took something extremely special to beat him. I think the downward slide had already started by the time he got to Floyd, in Ricky and his team. Joe Cuntez's dodgy reffing didn't help either, but it wasn't the deciding factor IMO. The build up to that fight accompanied with the excellent HBO 24/7 series drove the country into a frenzy, best build up I've witnessed (til Haye-Wlad hopefully)

Being a BIG fan of British Boxing though, I'll remember him more for the fight that he didn't give us against Junior Witter. Undefendable and inexcusable actions by Team Hatton IMO.

Glad to see Ricky seems to have his head sorted again and I wish him a happy retirement. The End!

http://news.boxrec.com/news/2011/thanks-memories-ricky

Here's my thoughts!!

Kevin

Wrists wrote:http://news.boxrec.com/news/2011/thanks-memories-ricky

Here's my thoughts!!

Kevin

Good piece Kevin enjoyed reading that, had a tear in my eye by the end of it

To summarise:

- Lager loving football fan from council estate gets matched and managed excellently by FW.

- Gets hyped up by Sky Sports, taking advantage of the cross over appeal coming from soccer.

- Career begins to stagnate and fans and fighter begin to ask questions of management as quality of opponent failed to improve.

- Eventually lands a hometown bout against the best fighter in the division, arguably past his prime.

- Goes in as an underdog but manages to come out on top in career high moment.

- Leaves FW to seek out bigger challenge and bigger share of the pot.

- Heads to the US to make a name for himself and tests the waters at Welter only to edge out a close decision in a fight he almost got stopped in.

- Came back to Light Welter and headlined at Vegas. "Believe you me".

- Challenged the P4P no. 1 ("let's fornicating have him") and got dominated, dropped and stopped with most memorable moment being falling forward into the turnbuckle.

- Had a homecoming confidence builder against a shot opponent but got badly shaken before taking a comfortable decision.

- Dumps Billy Graham.

- Makes return to the US and Vegas with good win against inconsistent opponent.

- Challenges the P4P no. 1 and gets laid out unconscious at the end of the second round. Never fights again.

- Gets caught on a drink and drugs binge and is shamed in national newspaper.

- Enters rehab for depression.

- Only drinks every other weekend. Apparently.

Agree on leaving Billy being a mistake, not so leaving Frank. Would Frank have delievered Manny and Mayweather!

Its quite hard to fault Ricky's career post Tszyu in terms of who he fought.... only fights I disagreed with really is the Urango fight. That should have been Witter.

Maussa - little risk for a big reward, headed a big queue to fight him.

Collazo - test waters at Welter, title fight against an underated fighter.

Urango - Should have fought Witter

Castillo - Most people considered him the #2 Light Welter at the time, still in many people's P4P lists - excellent name.

Mayweather -

Lazcano - acceptable warm up fight, maybe could have fought Witter here.

Malignaggi - Many people #2 Light Welter at the time, world champion.

Manny.

I got to see him live against Lauri and Thaxton, and ofcoarse on telly in all his big fights Ricky Hatton was brilliant to watch-that's my summary.

- Always good to watch (the main reason he became the most popular fighter Britain's had in recent years)
- Gave us some memorable nights, not least vs Tszyu, which I was privileged enough to witness first-hand
- Undisputed 140lb champion for the best part of 4 years
- Also top 10 in many people's p4p rankings for most of that time
- Only lost vs the best 2 fighters of his era at any weight
- Became popular in the USA, something very few British fighters manage to do

All in all, I'd say that he & Calzaghe both accomplished more than any other British fighter since Lennox Lewis.

Also - yes I'd have liked to see him against Witter, just to shut Junior up, but I don't hold it against him. Hatton had very little to gain from that fight; even if he'd won, he would not have looked good doing it, because Witter was rarely (if ever) in a good fight.

The most popular boxer of his generation. All you need to say really.

Nobody else could pursuade that many fans to travel so far to see them fight.

I have a lot of respect for what Ricky achieved but in hindsight you can pick a lot of holes in his opponents based on what happened before or after Ricky fought them.

Kostya Tszyu - Had fought just three rounds in the two and a half year period prior to this fight.

Carlos Maussa - Was 3-2 in his previous fight fights prior to Ricky and lost his next two after he fought Ricky.

Luis Collazo - No big wins before he fought Ricky. People said he was an underrated opponent, yet he has had no big wins since he fought Ricky either, although he almost beat Ricky. Has since been beaten by Mosley and Berto.

Juan Urango - Same again. No big wins before he fought Ricky, and none since then. Berto and Alexander have since beaten him just as convincingly, if not more so.

Jose Luis Castillo - Didn't seem the same after the last Corrales fight. Seemed that the weight draining over the years had taken its toll on him. Won a split decision in his tune up bout and did not look good in his previous fight a year prior to that, his first "officially" at Welter. Never fought a meaningful fight again after Ricky, and a year afterwards he lost a wide decision against a guy Jamie Moore shut out around the same time Hatton-Castillo took place.

Floyd Mayweather Jr - Outclassed and knocked out.

Juan Lazcano - A confidence builder that almost went terribly wrong. Lazcano was coming off the back of a decision loss to Vivian Harris, which was his only bout in the year and a half prior.

Paul Malignaggi - For me this was one of Hattons best wins and performances but Paulie was terrible that night and wasn't much better in his previous bout when he edged a split decision over Lovemore N'dou. His win over Diaz after the Hatton fight looks good on paper, but Diaz has no other fight at the weight and outside of the Malignaggi fights he has lost three of his last four fights, with the only win coming by split decision.

Manny Pacquiao - Outclassed and knocked out.

It's a shame that he never got to fight any of the other big name fighters in the division while they were in their prime such as Gatti, Judah, Mitchell, Witter & Cotto. The division seemed to dry up very quickly just as he beat Tszyu.

The fighter of his generation from these shores without doubt.

Gave me plenty of good weekends to look forward and rarely dissapointed.

I loved the buzz in the 24 hours before his fights, like Xmas eve as a kid.

it wasn't a tickling contest, apparently

Can I add, underated Skills.... Just because he wasn't a fleet footed back foot fighter doesn't mean to say he couldn't fight. I heard so many arguements that "if Calzaghe had Hatton's balls then we might have had the greatest boxer of all time". Not sure why so many people dismiss his skills.

Different skills to some of the greats on these shores, but skills nevertheless. He really had underated handspeed, tremendous footwork and shot variety. Power upstairs and downstairs, in his pomp (pre 2005) he had a decent defence with good movement - might be a case of opponents handspeed increasing as he stepped up - but for me his 3 stand out performances was where he showed great defensive skills - Tackie, Castillo and Malignaggi.

He beat Kostya with bottle, heart, desire and youth - but it was a flawed performance, but necessary. Had he fought the way he did against Tackie for Tszyu I think Kostya would have won on points.

He was due a big fight for the WBO title against (I think) a Brazilian whos name completely eludes me now. This was over a year before he fought Tszyu. I always wonder whether he would have gone on to fight Tszyu had that fight come off because for obvious reasons that fight did catapult him.

Anyone remember who it was? I remember reading about it in the Sun in a service station when I got back from a rugby tour in Ireland which would have been April time 2004. Not up there with 9/11 or Princess Diana's death but for some reason one of my 'you remember where you were when you heard the big news' moments. Shows what an utter sad act I really am.

Kelson Pinto? Hatton ended up fighting that Dane instead and Cotto got Pinto.

jameswilson wrote:He was due a big fight for the WBO title against (I think) a Brazilian whos name completely eludes me now. This was over a year before he fought Tszyu. I always wonder whether he would have gone on to fight Tszyu had that fight come off because for obvious reasons that fight did catapult him.

Anyone remember who it was? I remember reading about it in the Sun in a service station when I got back from a rugby tour in Ireland which would have been April time 2004. Not up there with 9/11 or Princess Diana's death but for some reason one of my 'you remember where you were when you heard the big news' moments. Shows what an utter sad act I really am.

Yeah, Kelso Pinto - Hatton would have anhilated him. A poor man's Ricardo Mayorga.

But I think it would have been just defense after defense of the WBO title - so glad he didn't, and glad he didn't fight Harries also.

stujones wrote:
Yeah, Kelso Pinto - Hatton would have anhilated him. A poor man's Ricardo Mayorga.

I'm no expert on Pinto, but I'm struggling to see that analogy. Poor mans Tommy Hearns maybe

banjo wrote:Kelson Pinto? Hatton ended up fighting that Dane instead and Cotto got Pinto.

Yeah. For some reason I remembered Pinto as a reigning WBO champ, turned out the fight was gonna be for the Vacant title, and of course he went on to get butchered by Cotto.

Chambers2 wrote:

stujones wrote:
Yeah, Kelso Pinto - Hatton would have anhilated him. A poor man's Ricardo Mayorga.

I'm no expert on Pinto, but I'm struggling to see that analogy. Poor mans Tommy Hearns maybe

Crude swinger (no jabs) with no defense is what I remember of Pinto. Cotto completely smashed him, made him look so amatuerish.

I think that Hatton was a classic over-achiever at the world level and that the KT fight completely ruined him. Those rights he kept eating at the beginning of every round ruined his chin in the long run. I still can't believe he didn't get put over by any of them on the night, he was a machine.

jtourettes wrote:I think that Hatton was a classic over-achiever at the world level and that the KT fight completely ruined him. Those rights he kept eating at the beginning of every round ruined his chin in the long run. I still can't believe he didn't get put over by any of them on the night, he was a machine.

Yeah, he walked through shots that night that put him on his arse later in his career.

I know he done very well but I actually see him as a bit of a waste talent.

If he had a better teacher his boxing would have been much better. All that body bag shite ruined him. He should have went to the states, sparred world class fighters and learned the "tricks of the trade". At world level he was shown to be very one dimensional however he showed flashes of technical brilliance which lead me to think that he could have flourished under a more adept boxing trainer. Billy Graham always came across as very insecure and adverse to anyone elses advice. (although I know I only saw tiny bits of the guy on TV so could be well off the mark)

One of the most successful fighters of the modern era but had he got smart early he could have been much more competitive against elite fighters. His weight fluctuations and binge drinking really took the wind out his sails towards the end.

I agree he wasted a lot of prime fighting guys well below his level.

John Murray is following in Hattons misguided footsteps just now although he is nowhere near the fighter Ricky was.

DaveBoyMorrison wrote:I know he done very well but I actually see him as a bit of a waste talent.

If he had a better teacher his boxing would have been much better. All that body bag shite ruined him. He should have went to the states, sparred world class fighters and learned the "tricks of the trade". At world level he was shown to be very one dimensional however he showed flashes of technical brilliance which lead me to think that he could have flourished under a more adept boxing trainer. Billy Graham always came across as very insecure and adverse to anyone elses advice. (although I know I only saw tiny bits of the guy on TV so could be well off the mark)

One of the most successful fighters of the modern era but had he got smart early he could have been much more competitive against elite fighters. His weight fluctuations and binge drinking really took the wind out his sails towards the end.

I agree he wasted a lot of prime fighting guys well below his level.

John Murray is following in Hattons misguided footsteps just now although he is nowhere near the fighter Ricky was.

I do think that he wasted his prime. He lost a lot of his speed and agility by the time he got to the elite guys. Tszyu was old and injured and he got away with it, but against prime fighters in Floyd and Manny, his deficiencies were clear.

DaveBoyMorrison wrote:I know he done very well but I actually see him as a bit of a waste talent.

If he had a better teacher his boxing would have been much better. All that body bag shite ruined him. He should have went to the states, sparred world class fighters and learned the "tricks of the trade". At world level he was shown to be very one dimensional however he showed flashes of technical brilliance which lead me to think that he could have flourished under a more adept boxing trainer. Billy Graham always came across as very insecure and adverse to anyone elses advice. (although I know I only saw tiny bits of the guy on TV so could be well off the mark)

One of the most successful fighters of the modern era but had he got smart early he could have been much more competitive against elite fighters. His weight fluctuations and binge drinking really took the wind out his sails towards the end.

I agree he wasted a lot of prime fighting guys well below his level.

John Murray is following in Hattons misguided footsteps just now although he is nowhere near the fighter Ricky was.

His style relied so much on speed, angles and stamina, that when he began to decline physically from years of self abuse, he became very ordinary very fast.

We've all been critical of Hatton's out of ring activities, but I cannot help but think - given Hatton's style, did his Jack the lad behaviour (I'm not talking the excessive drinking, but the lack of ticking over) help his career. The two fights in which his weight didn't flucuate, and he looked in good shape throughout the build up months in advance - were the Manny and Floyd fights. Did he burn himself out a tadge with a prolonged camp.

His missus is taller than him. That's the only thing I remember about Hatton at this point.