By Michael Lieberman: With the recent news of Ricky Hatton and his long-time Billy Graham going there separate ways, I don’t think for a second that this is going to fix Hatton’s many problems in his boxing career. For me, it seems like a cry for help, a desperate move on Hatton’s part to try and regain what is probably lost forever. Changing trainers at this point, something I wouldn’t recommend him doing, isn’t going to solve Hatton’s problems and start making him good again like he was earlier in his career. Let’s face it - what made Hatton good in the beginning was his high energy way of fighting, which was fueled in part by his youth.

Once his youth and stamina was compromised by age and a fast pace lifestyle, then we saw the best part of Hatton taken away. What was left was his bad flaws, such as his tendency to come lunching in with his typical charging attacks. It was only because of his lack of real quality opposition that this wasn’t exposed earlier in his career. Without the ability to fight as all out like he previously did, Hatton is vulnerable to even the softest of opposition at this point. Floyd Mayweather Jr., who took him out in the 10th round in 2007, essentially set the blue print in how to beat him. In other words, wait until he comes charging in like he always does trying to land a leaping shot, then tag him with a short hook to the head while he’s in mid-flight. It seems simple enough, so simple that it’s already been repeated twice by his last opponent Juan Lazcano.

Whatever Hatton was as a fighter early in his career, he’s clearly on the downward slide at this point, turning from a once decent puncher into a mauling, fouling, wrestling fighter who tires out late in his fights. Perhaps he always was limited as a fighter, and we’re only now finding out now that he’s finally stepping it up against top level opposition instead of some of the old, washed up fighters that he took on earlier in his career. It’s hard to say that Hatton was ever really good, because the early part of his career was against non-world class fighters, other than Kostya Tszyu, who was at the end of his career and depleted from having taken off a massive amount of weight. Personally, I don’t think Hatton was ever nearly as good as people think. I do think was a good, serviceable fighter, sort of in the class of an Arturo Gatti

Graham shouldn’t have been holding pads for Hatton ever, at least not when he started to have problems with his hands. However, whether Hatton gets someone else like Floyd Mayweather Sr. or a Freddie Roach, it won’t matter a bit. Hatton is what he is, and his style is already set. He’ll continue to fight as he has until the bitter end of his career, and if he does try to add more boxing to his game, he won’t successful. He’s too short to be an outside fighter, and he’ll be a sitting duck for any quicker puncher with longer arms and better movement than him.

The only way he’ll stay successful is if he continues with what he was in the past, but even then, I think he’s reached the end of the line. If he really wants to improve on his dreadful performances against both Mayweather and Lazcano, he needs to stop holding and wrestling as much. All that stuff is a waste of his time, and it’s only tiring him out. I think he initially started this as a strategy to defeat Tszyu in 2005, and when it worked for him, he suddenly got stuck on it, thinking he could use it all the time in every fight.

What he needed to do is start throwing his punches with abandon, letting his hands go and forgetting about all the grabbing, wresting and fouling. Like I said, I still don’t know if it would make any difference to him now, because the early part of his career was spent against lesser fighters, and older ones like Tszyu and Vince Phillips. However, I think his old style is much more effective than what he’s become in the past three years.

Even if he can’t fight at such a sustained rate as he did in the past, he would be hard to deal with even if it were for only six to ten rounds. I think he’s going to lose to Malignaggi unless he finds a way back to his old style, because Malignaggi is a much better fighter and will make Hatton look bad if he tries to go into the bout and out-wrestle him on the inside. That works against an old Tszyu, not against a young fighter with movement and speed like Malignaggi.

Related articles:

• No Related Post

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail