By Nate Anderson: According to Setanta Sports, Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) has come out saying that he won’t be hanging up his gloves just yet, although he is on the downward stretch of his career. Previous to this announcement, Hatton, 29, had been quoted as saying that he would only be fighting twice more – against Paulie Malignaggi and Manny Pacquiao – and then retiring from boxing altogether.
This announcement, naturally, was met with a lot of confusion and anger from the boxing fans, who felt that Hatton was selling himself short by getting out of the sport at such an early date in his career considering that he’s still fighting quite well, and has many other options available to him than just the Pacquiao and Malignaggi. Indeed, in the case of the Malignaggi bout, Hatton would be doing him a great disservice if this was one of his last two fights, because he could do much better than this.
In today’s Hatton article from Setanta, Hatton went on, stating that he wouldn’t be saying how many fights he’s got left, that he’s still fighting well. This is indeed true, Hatton is fighting well, and even though he took a little bit of punishment in this last fight with Juan Lazcano in May, it was within acceptable levels for a fighter with the slugging style that he uses to win fights. For a finesse fighter like Floyd Mayweather, one that avoids getting hit at all costs, then, yes, I could understand there being some major concern, but not for a face forward type fighter like Hatton.
His style is made for two-way punishment, and there’s no getting around that. The thing of it is, he’s the one dishing it out 90% of the time, but, of course, he’s going to have to take some punishment to along the way.
Hatton has a fight with Malignaggi coming up in November, likely to be taking place in the U.S. for Malignaggi’s IBF light welterweight title. Most experts feel that Hatton will easily take the title due to his much better offensive skills, his heavy pressure and good body attack. Malignaggi, if there is any weaknesses in his game one could look at, it would be his problems with taking punishment to the body. In his fights with Herman Ngoudjo and Miguel Cotto, Malignaggi looked quite uncomfortable whenever he was taking shots to the body. He’d often retreat to the outside, trying to get away from the body shots.
Luckily for him, Cotto and Ngoudjo didn’t pick up on his problems with taking the shots, and turned their direction towards landing head shots. Hatton, however, is often entirely focused on landing body shots, the kind that wears a fighter out. Like in his fight against Jose Luis Castillo, Hatton took Castillo, also a good body puncher in his own right, out with a beautiful left hook to the ribs in the 4th round. There was no defense against the shot, for it was expertly placed to the ribs of Castillo, causing him to go down like he was hit with a ton of bricks.
In Hatton’s fight with Mayweather last December, he wasn’t able to go to the body like he wanted to, prevented by referee Joe Cortez, who continuously separated Hatton and Mayweather whenever Hatton was in punching range to land his shots. This effectively stopped Hatton’s body attack and allowed Mayweather to do pretty much what he wanted to do in the ring.
After Hatton finishes dealing with Malignaggi, he likely has a fight coming afterwards against Pacquiao, who will be moving up from the lightweight division where he just finished winning the WBC title with a stoppage of David Diaz. Pacquiao, though smaller than Hatton, will be a very formidable opponent given his speed, right hook-straight left hand combination, and constant movement in the ring. In the past, one could count on Pacquiao staying in front of his opponent for most of the fight, trying to take them out with big shots.
That’s not the case anymore, however, as his trainer Freddie Roach has made him much more elusive, while at the same time taught him how to throw a right hook. With the changes made, Pacquiao looks to be almost unbeatable as a fighter. No matter what his opponent brings to him, he has multiple strategies to counteract their attacks. In other words, he has not only a Plan A, but also a Plan B, C & D.