Is Ricky Hatton a Quitter?

By Michael Lieberman: Former welterweight/light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) has said he’ll be only fighting two more times, against Paulie Malignaggi in November, and then against probably Manny Pacquiao after that, and then get out of boxing for good. What kind of message is that for the younger generation? I don’t about you, but that reminds of somewhat of the mentality of a quitter if you ask me. It’s the timing of Hatton’s announcement that gets me, since he’s now finding himself having to struggle for the first time in his boxing career because he’s no longer being spoon fed one easy opponent after another in Manchester, and, of course, he’s going to have some problems against better fighters.

As far as I can tell, Hatton seems to be running from the better fighters that he would now, whether he beats Malignaggi or not in November, be expected to face. In a way, I suppose this is Hatton’s way of getting out of boxing before he gets planted over and over against the top of the light welterweight, fighters like Timothy Bradley, Junior Witter, Lamont Peterson, Kendall Holt, Devon Alexander and even Gavin Rees.

I think Hatton is frankly afraid to fight any of them, knowing that he’d be in for the fight of his life and would likely suffer another knockout loss like the one he did against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007. For that matter, he couldn’t depend on being saved by referees who stop the fight to allow him to have his shoelaces tied, giving him a break from a battering that’s taking place in the ring.

Anyway you want to look at it, what Hatton appears to be doing is running, folding up the tent and quitting, so he can avoid having his bubble burst by getting beaten by fighters that most people have heard little about, if anything. It’s one thing Hatton getting beaten by the likes of Mayweather, a fighter that is considered to be the best in boxing by most fans and experts alike, but in the case of Bradley, Witter, Rees, Peterson, Holt and Alexander, they’re not ranked nearly as high in people’s minds. Yet, I would give anyone of them more than an excellent chance at beating Hatton, and stopping him inside the distance.

Is Hatton a quitter? Why else would he choose this time to retire after facing Malignaggi and possibly Pacquiao? Malignaggi isn’t considered to be the best in the light welterweight division, not even close to that, in fact. He’s somewhat that’s popular, as far as I can tell, because of the way he looks and talks more than how he fights. So far, he’s been given what by all accounts appear to be gift decisions over Herman Ngoudjo and Lovemore N’dou, and then taken a viscous beating at the hands of Miguel Cotto.

On the flip side, we have Bradley, an unbeaten fighter at 22-0, who recently defeated Witter to win the WBC light welterweight title. Witter was thought by many people to be the best fighter in the light welterweight division, not Hatton, who avoided him for years like he had the plague, giving excuses constantly for not fighting him. Now, once Witter was beaten, Hatton took a shot at him, remarking that he can’t fight him now because he’s been beaten.

It was funny, and quite disingenuous of him. Bradley instantly called Hatton out for a fight, and as you’d expect, Hatton ignored him, turning his sights to Malignaggi, the much easier opponent. I don’t imagine anyone that knows boxing would ever consider Malignaggi as being the equal to either Bradley or Witter, which makes Hatton’s decision to fight Malignaggi seem less than a brave thing to do. I frankly think what Hatton is doing is a face-saving move, to avoid having to deal with getting beaten once he finally faces the better fighters in the light welterweight division. He’s not washed up in any way. In fact, he’s the same fighter he always was. The only thing that’s changed is that he now is looking at having to face fighters that he can no longer safely avoid, without being stripped and branded a coward by many in the boxing community.

Share and Enjoy:

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Posted July 7th, 2008 l 419 Views

Tags: Boxing, Ricky Hatton

Related Articles:

ron u.k.:

you really are an embarrasment as a writer.have you got a ricky hatton fixation? how do they pick you to write this drivel are you bribing them? hatton scared of bradley,witter and then to top it all the mighty gavin rees!!! you are a complete and utter joke.why don’t you just title your articles “i hate ricky hatton”

posted July 9th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

antimoron:

Ricky is not running away from challenges. He is just playing his cards wise right now. Maybe he feels money is more important than legacy this time. He is just being practical maybe. Fatherhood time. At least he made it big time… even thought a little overhype to be honest..

posted July 8th, 2008 at 9:42 am

Tucker:

Hatton gave his all in the fight against Tszyu. I fear that he won the battle but may have lost the war that night. They fought 11 very rough and hard rounds. I think that Ricky left some of himself in the ring that night. You Brits should damn well love him for what he did that night. Hatton is no coward, I believe that he simply knows that its about time to retire. It appears that he doesn,t take a punch as well as he use too.

posted July 8th, 2008 at 5:03 am

ZKO:

Haven’t we seen this movie before? Hatton’s playing the DLH/Mayweather game of retirement. It’s a bargaining chip for negotiations with his “last fight”. I’m sure he could be persuaded to unretire for the right price.

posted July 7th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

steve:

who is this writer? how anti hatton can he get? he was probly one of the first to say hattons on his way down now, and now hatton says he is going to retire he is slating him, give up the writing mate cause your crap at it

posted July 7th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

lie berman:

another load of rubbish from this writer.you never have anything good 2 say bout our top fighters from the uk.ricky hatton has had 45 fights has got thin skin that gets opened up more times then the poor have opened up tins of baked beans,but hes desire and drive 2 fight top fighters shouldnt be questioned,do u think he is scared 2 get in the ring with the likes of witter,rees bradley,holt,but aint of scared of mayweather,urango,collazo,tszyu,castillo.and now as u say hes running scared and hes a quitter but hes still gona fight 4 a world title against malignaggi and then aginst pound 4 pound number 1 fighter in the world manny pacquiao.ur write ups r rubbish.

posted July 7th, 2008 at 7:45 pm