BoxRec

With Hatton-PBF 90% made we are going to have the usual numbskulls coming on here saying that Hatton is overhyped and will get schooled, we will ignore them but it did get me thinking??

How will a Hatton defeat be percieved??

IMO PBF is one of the great fighters of this generation, yes hes slightly overhyped, I dont think he would beat the Fab 5, no, I will clarify, he wouldnt be the favourite to beat them...but hes the best thing we have seen in the late 90's and 2000's...

A Hatton defeat would be nothing to be ashamed of...to be honest a good perfomance would guarentee him a place in the Hall of fame..

What would a defeat mean for you??

Well, Mayweather is the best pure boxer I've ever seen so I don't expect Ricky to win. Ricky can go back down to 140 and dominate and be remembered as a great. I'm sure he could give Mayweather his toughest fight.

First off I pick Floyd to beat Hatton.

Defeat would not alter my view on Hatton's legacy much. In fact if he lost but really made Floyd work for the win, maybe taking the middle rounds and forcing Floyd out of his game plan for period of the fight, he would probably go up in my estimation. Obviously if he was totally outclassed and picked to pieces a la Gatti his legacy might suffer a bit.

It would all depend on the nature of the loss. There is a big difference between getting put down 3 times in the the first round before getting TKOed and a valiant, blood, sweat and tears performance where you lose a close SD.

It also depends on how he rebounds from it. For me, Naseem went down a lot in my all time P4P not because he lost to Barerra but because he failed to rebound from it.

But... When my money goes into the bookies, it'll be on a Hatton win. Just call me an optimist. I think Hatton will impose the DLH strategy to greater effect.