BoxRec

OK, some, indeed many of you may have seen this before. But I just stumbled across this footage of 'Richard' Hatton in his third pro fight. So I thought I'd share it. Obviously the fight was shown on SKY, but I was a penniless student back then, so I missed it. So I guess others did too. But Hatton was the fighter who got me back into boxing in a lot of ways, so hopefully this link isn't a total waste of time. It features some pretty prophetic words from Ian Darke, although it's not exactly a classic fight. Still, enough preamble:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i95KzNDNNHQ

Ricky's body hooks and footwork were evident early in his career but his hair style still needed some work.

The 'puddin bowl' haircut was a mistake. I thought he had a Top Gun style flat top when he turned pro? My memory is failing me..

Great find. Shows what a good boxer Hatton was from the start and what a good commentator Ian Darke has always been.

the 'lightly regarded' WBU crown. good words from mr darke, hatton wore that 'lightly regarded' crown for many years, shame frank did not push ricky to bigger and better things earlier in his career...

Unbelievable. I'd forgotten that Hatton's shorts used to be even worse than they are now. Seriously though, it's obvious, even that early in Hatton's career that he was going to be a decent little fighter.

i like the haircut. i didn't use to like the long fringe look of his early days, he looked like a bloody 10 yr old.

biggest surefire prospect i've ever seen.

awesome all the way.

How do you think he compares with Amir Khan at the same stage then?

I know the opponent was shite but I think you can see a better all rounded fighter back then in Ricky than what we see in Amir now.

Did his mum used to cut his hair?

Lenny Albert wrote:How do you think he compares with Amir Khan at the same stage then?

I know the opponent was shite but I think you can see a better all rounded fighter back then in Ricky than what we see in Amir now.

Hatton looks considerably better in my opinion. He doesn't look too different from the p4p boxer he is now, you can see a professional style there already, whereas Khan is still refining his bouncing around the ring methods after 10 fights.

states wrote:

Lenny Albert wrote:How do you think he compares with Amir Khan at the same stage then?

I know the opponent was shite but I think you can see a better all rounded fighter back then in Ricky than what we see in Amir now.

Hatton looks considerably better in my opinion. He doesn't look too different from the p4p boxer he is now, you can see a professional style there already, whereas Khan is still refining his bouncing around the ring methods after 10 fights.

hatton had a pro style.

khan had the ideal style for amateur boxing and looks a bit lightweight for the pro's at the moment.

nickd wrote:Did his mum used to cut his hair?

What do you mean used too? She still does and has got better and better over the years. Ricky after winning millions has bought her a £10 set of clippers to replace the kitchen scisors she used earlier in his career.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

states wrote:

Lenny Albert wrote:How do you think he compares with Amir Khan at the same stage then?

I know the opponent was shite but I think you can see a better all rounded fighter back then in Ricky than what we see in Amir now.

Hatton looks considerably better in my opinion. He doesn't look too different from the p4p boxer he is now, you can see a professional style there already, whereas Khan is still refining his bouncing around the ring methods after 10 fights.

hatton had a pro style.

khan had the ideal style for amateur boxing and looks a bit lightweight for the pro's at the moment.

Lightweight or Lightwelter Khans a different type of fighter. Look at how many times this kid Ricky was in got knocked over in the first round though (boxrec link below). Wouldn't Khan have put him away quick despite his lack of a punch?

http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=020773

hitman_hatton1 wrote:i like the haircut. i didn't use to like the long fringe look of his early days, he looked like a bloody 10 yr old.

biggest surefire prospect i've ever seen.

awesome all the way.

I remember on one of my first big assignments, covering Hatton's fight with Pendleton for boxinginlasvegas.com, I was saying that Hatton's body shots were crushing shots and that he was going to go all the way.

Claude Abrahams looked over rather dismissively and said "there's a lot better fighters than Pendleton out there."

He was right of course, but Hatton's style was enough to make Tszyu quit on his stool so ultimately I was right, though did prior to the Tszyu fight think Ricky had bitten off more than he could chew.

Hatton's always had terrific balance, and one aspect of his game that is underrated is his excellent footwork, Hatton closes the gap very quickly on opponents, and his handspeed is deceptively fast, especially with the hooks.

I'd like to see him going back to working the body a bit more, he seems to have turned into a head-hunter of late.

the recent criticism of Hatton has been a tad unfair- just cos he barely beat a tough, fit, slick, underrated southpaw Collazo, all of a sudden Mayweather will be able to batter him with 9 punch combos, Cotto would slice him up & Gatti would beat him on points.

On another Hatton note, there's some photo's of him in training this week over on his site. Christ, the weight just falls off him when he starts training. Looks in great shape.

I must admit, It did feel good gloating when Ricky made Kostya quit. I'm sure Claude had completely forgotten about what to me was an important victory......

Thing is, I gradually talked myself out of thinking Hatton was the nuts over time, as more and more migivings developed over his level of competition, whereas my more naive gut instinct about him turned out to be correct.

I guess what I couldn't have known is that Ricky would have sucked up everything Tszyu threw at him in those middle rounds, when many thought the wheels would fall off, he took some real hammer blows that night.

Earliest I rememeber Hatton was when he was holding Carl Thompson's WBO title in the intros for Thompson-Nelson.

viciousmaussa wrote:Earliest I rememeber Hatton was when he was holding Carl Thompson's WBO title in the intros for Thompson-Nelson.

The first I heard of Hatton was in the pages of good old Boxing News. There was a photo of an 18 yr old flat-top-sporting Hatton out running with Billy Graham. He was due to make his pro debut not long after the issue was published.

In the brief piece The Preacher gave Ricky the big build up and marked him out as one to watch. Fair play to him he was right – Hatton marched through the early domestic comp with swashbuckling ease and the first time I saw his high octane style for myself, I was a fan.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:i like the haircut. i didn't use to like the long fringe look of his early days, he looked like a bloody 10 yr old and it used to make my willy go hard.

biggest surefire prospect i've ever seen.

awesome all the way.

F^G.

SIMPSONS wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote:i like the haircut. i didn't use to like the long fringe look of his early days, he looked like a bloody 10 yr old and it used to make my willy go hard.

biggest surefire prospect i've ever seen.

awesome all the way.

F^G.

i'd give old stumpy legs an A.

nickd wrote:Did his mum used to cut his hair?

i think the council used to cut it !!

Very interesting clip - It's interesting to see how Ricky's style has altered.

In this clip he seems to stand more solidly on his feet - rather than his present style which is always bouncing on the toes. I also think he ducks more in this style and actually looks like he plants his body more for the power shots.

Proper Chav, Manc looking!

they are going easy on wee amir for the mo but he will be in against somebody good soon so he can win a world title pronto. maybes pete buckley for the wbu belt wee tam

E wrote:Very interesting clip - It's interesting to see how Ricky's style has altered.

In this clip he seems to stand more solidly on his feet - rather than his present style which is always bouncing on the toes. I also think he ducks more in this style and actually looks like he plants his body more for the power shots.

I agree. Good observation. I've admitted plenty of times I found Hatton's fight with Tszyu and Collazo to be pretty horrible. Simply because I didn't like that "smothering" punch and grab style. This is a great clip for posters who haven't seen Hatton's older style too much (such as myself). He does look like a talented and entertaining fighter here. Although it is against a beginner's opponent, he fights more like an accomplished amateur here than like his John Ruiz imitation in recent fights. I can see he is a very good tactician, he must have felt the easiest way to beat Tszyu would be the way he did however, in the eyes of many boxing fans, it was a near cowardly tactic to use. I remember I had heard good things about Hatton and I had seen him once or twice, I visited my father for that weekend and he asked me who Hatton reminded me of, I said, "Well, he fights similarly to a young Julio Cesar Chavez." At the time it was the closest comparison I could find even though it proved to be a bad one. After the fight, my father said, "This garbage is not boxing. I never want to see this fighter again." I myself agreed as I was disappointed (ironically, we both saw the Hatton vs Collazo fight). I'd appreciate it if any other video's of Hatton's early fights can be uploaded. My father has no idea how to operate a computer but I can show him that Hatton isn't really as bad as he thought.