BoxRec

How good was Ricky Hatton?

Did he overachieve?

Does he deserve a place amongst the “best” the UK has produced?

How good was the KT fight …. Was he the same fighter after that fabulous night

Spud wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 14:23 How good was Ricky Hatton?

Did he overachieve?

Does he deserve a place amongst the “best” the UK has produced?

Yes.
Unequivocally

si7dog7 wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 14:26

Spud wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 14:23 How good was Ricky Hatton?

Did he overachieve?

Does he deserve a place amongst the “best” the UK has produced?

Yes.
Unequivocally

He deserves his place. Unequivocally

I think he does. I also met him once and he was lovely, randomly in Retford. Just there like a normal person, no entourage at all.

Loved his fight vs Magee.

I'd lived with my then girlfriend for a few years but things weren't going well.

She suggested we had a weekend away to try and sort things out.

I agreed, and she was pleased when I told her I'd booked us a nice hotel in Manchester.

However she didn't seem as happy when we got there and I revealed I had two tickets for Hatton v Freddie Pendleton.

Great night of boxing but I was thrown out the house soon after and lost everything.

Took me a while to get going again but now married to a brilliant woman for 18 years. Thank you Hatton!

veriton wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:31 I'd lived with my then girlfriend for a few years but things weren't going well.

She suggested we had a weekend away to try and sort things out.

I agreed, and she was pleased when I told her I'd booked us a nice hotel in Manchester.

However she didn't seem as happy when we got there and I revealed I had two tickets for Hatton v Freddie Pendleton.

Great night of boxing but I was thrown out the house soon after and lost everything.

Took me a while to get going again but now married to a brilliant woman for 18 years. Thank you Hatton!

that's a great story!

veriton wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:31 I'd lived with my then girlfriend for a few years but things weren't going well.

She suggested we had a weekend away to try and sort things out.

I agreed, and she was pleased when I told her I'd booked us a nice hotel in Manchester.

However she didn't seem as happy when we got there and I revealed I had two tickets for Hatton v Freddie Pendleton.

Great night of boxing but I was thrown out the house soon after and lost everything.

Took me a while to get going again but now married to a brilliant woman for 18 years. Thank you Hatton!

Glad you got to see the fight and that things have turned out so well.

Looking back at that card, there was some serious talent on that show.

I'd previously got Hatton to sign a programme when he was on the undercard of Ryan Rhodes v Jason Matthews (although programme is for Bert Schenk who pulled out late)

I was a big Hatton fan from the start, he always looked class. Hamzah Sheeraz is giving me the same vibes now.

Hatton seems to be universally liked.

Random fact - Harold Shipman was his GP in Hyde!

veriton wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:31 I'd lived with my then girlfriend for a few years but things weren't going well.

She suggested we had a weekend away to try and sort things out.

I agreed, and she was pleased when I told her I'd booked us a nice hotel in Manchester.

However she didn't seem as happy when we got there and I revealed I had two tickets for Hatton v Freddie Pendleton.

Great night of boxing but I was thrown out the house soon after and lost everything.

Took me a while to get going again but now married to a brilliant woman for 18 years. Thank you Hatton!

Ha. Good stuff

Personally I think he overachieved massively and his overall career is greatly buttressed by one win over a man who retired straight after. At world level he did an awful lot of mauling and wrestling, and his footwork and head movement (what there was of it pre-KT) has regressed greatly by the end of his career, possibly even by the KT fight I can’t remember.

To take one example I think Froch was a better fighter and Hatton nowhere near a Calzaghe or Lewis (for example) as the best British fighters ever.

Counter-puncher wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 17:30 Personally I think he overachieved massively and his overall career is greatly buttressed by one win over a man who retired straight after. At world level he did an awful lot of mauling and wrestling, and his footwork and head movement (what there was of it pre-KT) has regressed greatly by the end of his career, possibly even by the KT fight I can’t remember.

To take one example I think Froch was a better fighter and Hatton nowhere near a Calzaghe or Lewis (for example) as the best British fighters ever.

Aye, he was ace to follow and watch thought wasn't he, proper character.

SeanBrennan wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:33

veriton wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:31 I'd lived with my then girlfriend for a few years but things weren't going well.

She suggested we had a weekend away to try and sort things out.

I agreed, and she was pleased when I told her I'd booked us a nice hotel in Manchester.

However she didn't seem as happy when we got there and I revealed I had two tickets for Hatton v Freddie Pendleton.

Great night of boxing but I was thrown out the house soon after and lost everything.

Took me a while to get going again but now married to a brilliant woman for 18 years. Thank you Hatton!

that's a great story!

Was she hacked off that it was for the lowly regarded WBU trinket and Pendleton was a faded gatekeeper?

Did she go with you?

Glad it all turned out for the good!

I think he was moved too slowly personally, after the Tszyu fight he was never really very convincing apart from Malinaggi.

But, looking at it objectively, he beat the number 1 in the world, won belts at 2 different weights, and during his career, not counting the silly comeback, he only lost to the 2 best fighters of his era. That's a pretty good career.

Counter-puncher wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 17:30 Personally I think he overachieved massively and his overall career is greatly buttressed by one win over a man who retired straight after. At world level he did an awful lot of mauling and wrestling, and his footwork and head movement (what there was of it pre-KT) has regressed greatly by the end of his career, possibly even by the KT fight I can’t remember.

To take one example I think Froch was a better fighter and Hatton nowhere near a Calzaghe or Lewis (for example) as the best British fighters ever.

file this post under "never a truer word spoken", He wasnt an exciting fighter vs the top tier, he'd hug them to death. that Urango fight was a shocker. he crapped his pants after taking a few body shots. I also thought he lost to Collazo.

Overachieved, nowhere near the best the UK has produced.

He could have been better if he'd lived like a professional athlete but his obsession with bingeing on booze and shit food to further his "peoples champion" persona eventually caught up with him.

One of the best of British for sure. He just had the misfortune of being around when two ATG were at his weight too.

There aren't many (if any) British greats who fought 2 prime ATG is there.

Overachieved.
Always thought he judged his distance well in and out,but you need very good lateral movement to fight like that or your gonna get tagged...and he stopped doing it later on.
Never lived the life as has been said which nobody gets away with. Sound lad though with a good dig.

tonyevs wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 03:22 One of the best of British for sure. He just had the misfortune of being around when two ATG were at his weight too.

There aren't many (if any) British greats who fought 2 prime ATG is there.

And Hatton only fought one prime ATG

deadpan wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 19:35

SeanBrennan wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:33

veriton wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 16:31 I'd lived with my then girlfriend for a few years but things weren't going well.

She suggested we had a weekend away to try and sort things out.

I agreed, and she was pleased when I told her I'd booked us a nice hotel in Manchester.

However she didn't seem as happy when we got there and I revealed I had two tickets for Hatton v Freddie Pendleton.

Great night of boxing but I was thrown out the house soon after and lost everything.

Took me a while to get going again but now married to a brilliant woman for 18 years. Thank you Hatton!

that's a great story!

Was she hacked off that it was for the lowly regarded WBU trinket and Pendleton was a faded gatekeeper?

Did she go with you?

Glad it all turned out for the good!

Haha! I can't remember her commenting on Pendleton's former glory years and the authenticity of the belt. Or even her thoughts on whether Hatton should fight Witter and what would happen if they did, which probably consumed most of my waking thoughts around that time.

veriton wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 06:36 her thoughts on whether Hatton should fight Witter and what would happen if they did, which probably consumed most of my waking thoughts around that time.

oh, the heady forum days of, like, 2007-9 (???) was it? I feel old), who wasn't deeply interested in this subject at the time

Counter-puncher wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 04:20

tonyevs wrote: ↑02 Mar 2024, 03:22 One of the best of British for sure. He just had the misfortune of being around when two ATG were at his weight too.

There aren't many (if any) British greats who fought 2 prime ATG is there.

And Hatton only fought one prime ATG

One prime?

Spud wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 14:23 How good was Ricky Hatton?

Did he overachieve?

Does he deserve a place amongst the “best” the UK has produced?

How good was the KT fight …. Was he the same fighter after that fabulous night

He was an excellent fighter

Did he overachieve - umm yes and no. Similar to McGuigan he "beat the man", but the man was over the hill and there were others he could have and perhaps should have fought beside his two high profile losses to ATG fighters.

Does he deserve his place amongst the best the UK has produced - yes. Like McGuigan and Buchannan etc - Britain hasn't had a great deal of longstanding and long reigning champions. Calzaghe and Lennox in recent times but that is about it. So yes Hatton should be up there with the likes of McGuigan etc.

KT fight was a great fight and excellent occasion - Hatton wasn't the same fight BEFORE the KT fight. I would have loved to have seen him fight the likes of Mitchell and Gatti for the other trinkets before going for KT.

Froch has a good resume but again was never recognised as the best in his division. Hopkins and Jones Jr were at the very end of their careers when Calzaghe fought them, as was Holyfield and Tyson when Lennox fought those two also.

McGuigan, Buchanan, Naz and probably Josh Taylor make the list too. But they either beat old champions or weak champions, and lost to the younger better guys in their division. I`d rate Hatton above any of those except Froch, Calzaghe and Lennox.

The whole "Tszyu was over the hill" narrative is BS for me. Tszyu was coming off a sharp KO performance over Sharmba Mitchell and didn't look like he lost a step. Tszyu did not like pressure fighters and needed space and time to operate. He got run over by Vince Phillips earlier in his career and probably always would have lost to that type of fighter. He was always a dangerous sharpshooter but Hatton had the style to beat him. I will say that the absolutely disgusting intentional low blow by Hatton in the fight does sour the result for me but I don't buy that Tszyu was "washed up" or "over the hill".