By Eric Schmidt: In the past month, World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Junior Witter (36-1-2, 21 KOs) has made it no secret that he wants to fight to fight former World Boxing Association & International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (43-1, 31 KOs), calling him out often in the press. However, instead of agreeing to take the fight, and shutting Witter up, Hatton, 29, has said “I don’t know whether I want to give him the best pay day of his life. When someone slags you off you don’t repay them by giving them their best pay day.”
Clearly, this is an excuse that few buy, considering that Hatton himself had called out Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the press before their bout, which clearly worked in this case, as it angered Mayweather, causing him to agree to the fight.
However, in Witter’s case, Hatton is saying that he doesn’t want to fight him because he’s calling him out too often. What does Hatton expect from Witter? In the past, when Witter wasn’t calling him out, Hatton wasn’t rushing out to fight him, even though Witter has been the best junior welterweight in England for the past seven years.
How can Hatton avoid someone as good as Witter for so long? It seems odd, in particular because England is such a small country, making it almost impossible – that is, unless one were trying to avoid a fight – to not go up against a fighter as good as Wiitter when they’re in the same weight class. But somehow, for whatever reason, Hatton has avoided Witter like the plague.
Lately, Hatton has said that he wants to fight in May, although he’s said little about whom he wants to fight, other than ruling out Witter as one of his options. Based on reports, Hatton is still interested in fighting Oscar De La Hoya, who is looking for a tune-up bout for May, though it won’t be against Hatton. De La Hoya won’t be available until early 2009, because he has a fight scheduled with Mayweather on September 20th. This essentially removes De La Hoya as an option for Hatton.
Another fighter name that has been tossed around is IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, who just happens to be looking around for a big-money opponent like Hatton. This, of course, would be a good choice for Hatton, since Malignaggi is somewhat of a paper champion, a fighter with very little power. Malignaggi is lucky to still be a champion, however, because he looked to have lost his last fight against challenger Herman Ngoudjo. If Hatton is looking for an easy title, and a confidence booster, he need look no further than a bout with Malignaggi.
Unfortunately, as you can see, Witter, the more interesting opponent, seems to be missing from all the speculation in the boxing news. It seems as if Hatton is scared to fight Witter, possibly because he knows that he’d have problems matching up with him due to his fast hands and excellent boxing skills. Certainly, Witter would be a tougher opponent than either De La Hoya or Malignaggi, although he’d not bring in the kind of huge money that De La Hoya would no doubt bring in.
However, Witter will be available in the near future, whereas with De La Hoya, Hatton would be forced to wait until next year to make that fight possible. However, most of all, Hatton needs to take the fight with Witter so that he can clear the air of him, and get him to stop talking to the media. Hatton may think that he can explain his reasons for not fighting him, saying that he doesn’t want to give a payday to someone that is constantly calling him out, but to a lot of fans and media alike, this seems as if Hatton is afraid of him.
There’s nothing wrong with being afraid of a fighter, but when you avoid them, and then come up with implausible excuses, it gives the impression that a fighter is yellow. I hope that’s not the case with Hatton, since I’ve always thought that he was a talented fighter, but I’m starting to come to that conclusion based on the excuses he’s making about Witter.