Will Hatton rule the world?
October 30th, 2008
By Jordan Taylor: As with most of the UK’s population, back in December 2007, we were rooting for Ricky Hatton to beat the great Floyd Matweather. Hatton up until that fight had had a fine run in the ring, taking his tally to 44 fights without loss, beating the likes of Juan Urango, Luis Collazo, Jose Luis Castillo and the great Kosta Tszyu on the way. He was a P4P fighter, and was named The Ring magazines fighter of the year back in 2005. Now it seems Ricky Hatton is associated with phrases like ‘past it, ‘over the hill’ or ‘over rated’. I personally find it quite irritating, and totally unjust.
Hatton now find himself at a pivotal point in his career. If (I am pretty confident he will) he beats Malignaggi, there are some monster fights waiting. Oscar De la Hoya looks pretty certain at Wembley stadium in front of 100, 000 fans, as does the fight with the Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao at the same venue. These two fights alone would generate so much interest, appealing to both Purists and the mainstream media. The later in particular, as the two fighters have such large fan-bases, and I believe will showcase a supreme meeting of 2 fighters. The magnitude of thee events can only be good for boxing, and money wise for all parties wise, you are looking at hundreds of millions in revenue.
This leads us to a potential fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. I feel Hatton was genuinely in the mix against him for the first six rounds last year, and with the right trainer now in place, we can see a huge fight on the horizon. Hatton, Pacman, Mayweather and De la Hoya; truly massive fights waiting to happen. Many will scoff at this bold statement, but Hatton has the hunger and desire to beat all four of these fighters should the dream be realised. Hatton for Pound for Pound best fighter in the world by 20101. He deserves it. The time is right for him to prove the doubters wrong. The same people who say Joe Calzaghe is a fraud, and that his 11 year reign as WBO champion does not count. The same people who slate David Haye for having a glass jaw and being over-rated.
2009 is the year of the Brits!
16 Responses to “Will Hatton rule the world?”
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Edwin Valero?! Give me a break. Hahahahaha!
In the reply to Mr. Taylor’s rediculous assesment the Ricky Hatton is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, lets get real Mr.Taylor.
Theres a difference between me SAYING he is the best pound for pound, and me WANTING or THINKING he will be P4P best next year. Big f***cking difference you ignorrant prat. Take away the PBF fight, who is arguably the best boxer we have seen in the last 20 years, then we hasve a tuly world class fighter. How can you disagree? As for Maklignaggi, he doesnt come close!! Did you see his last fight? Ricky will demolish him, and I genuienly beieve that. The geezer is the not in the same league.
I like this YANK thing thats going on all americans are yanks or shall we say not exactly americans they come come from Ireland Africa and even europe for that matter. Not execlty america is it. Go ricky beat paulie and then the rest of the division and shut these YANKS up. GO BRITAN
WES:”" Bernard Hopkins fought Joe and schooled him back in April, only the ones “across the pond” think other wise. Joe was just more active to win the latter part of the fight to barley pull out a sad SD due to the many “slaps”" I aint never heard so much rubbish. stating that joe was just more active than hopkins after the way hopkins done pavlik is like stating boxer A only beat boxer B because he KO’s him. Work rate is part of the game and is one of the many variables in boxing. Baiscally Hopkins got outboxed but more importantly out thought, Calzaghe used what he knew Hopkins had no answer for, Hopkins thought he did but he didnt. Dont get me wrong I though Hopkin did well against Calzaghe for alot of the fight and pushed him well but there is no real dispute over who won with the majority of fight fans scoring it calzaghes way.
I have just recieved my copy of the Ricky Hatton monthly i.e Boxing Monthly. the first thing i notice is the discraceful size difference between de la hoya and pacman!
greedy promoters are going to ruin the game if we are not careful, Kelly Pavlik wa pushed into a fight 2 weights above his normal fighting weight, and couldnt do it! he still has the world middle weight title but his unbeaten record and pride are shattered, was the money worth it Kelly? the answer is No, No,No!!!
In the reply to Mr. Taylor’s rediculous assesment the Ricky Hatton is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, lets get real Mr.Taylor. People still talk about Hatton beating Kosta a man who had been retired for 3 years! and was lured out of reitrement with a big pay offer gto launch Hatton into the big time. Ok Hatton beat a washed up Castillio but was totally out classed by Mayweather and i cant see even gettin Malignaggi who will be far to quick for the face first Hatton!
If you want to talk about best pound for pound fighters in the world Mr.Taylor take a look at the Leight Heavyweight champion Chad Dawson! featherweight champion Chris John! or the super featherwight champion Edwin Valero!! Ricky Hatton does not come near the worlds top 10!
2009 will be a big year 4 us.we have got alot of top fighters coming up.
Dave: Who the hell are you to determine lennox lewis is no British? The man was born and raised until 12 here. The fact that he represented Canada at the Olympics is irrelevant. He represented Britain very well as a Heavyweight champion and ill be damned before i hear such nonsense. Secondly, why should Lennox have agreed to a rematch. Klitschko was destroyed and required both many stitches and a hospital stay as a result of his injuries. The fact he was not knocked out is an irrelevance. He was takin severe shots from Lewis and if your are not permitted to continue on medical grounds its a technical knockout, plain and simple. Lewis fough VK, beat him fair and square, and retired, late into his thirties with his faculties and his bank balance intact. Do not diminish his career achievements or question the mans nationality when it is clearly by all legal requirements British.
well then wes, i do appologise if i caused you any offence and will nxt time ask whether someone comes from north/south before calling them a yank lol
bt the fact that u live a street or so away from jones jr matters little, because as far as im concerned he’s slightly disillusuioned by thinking that he was cheated in his loss to jc, and in all honesty i couldn’t care less whether u spoke to him or not unless i was prehaps considering writing a book or something on him, which im not.
on the patriotic point u made, it is no different than the football (soccer) support side of things and is why fights can be so more interesting and atmospheric- especially live.
although i do agree with the style side of things, i don’t agree that jc’s style is pathetic and embarrassing and don’t quite understand how u say it, and so it would be nice if u properly explalined why.
i also don’t agree with lenix lewis point u made as one, he shouldn’t be classed as british and two, he did a good thing for boxing by turning down the comeback offer, as it would have been embarrassing and pathetic if he agreed.
on your last point, i do agree about the american side of things bt i don’t agree that it is right.
“You better step your game up son, you dont know who your talking too.”
enlighten me.
haha, wes who will win? rrj or calzaghe?
“Yes, I do strap on gloves and if you know your stuff, you would know I live right the street from Jones Jr. (Pensacola) who I see and talk too all the time. I actually just sall him last weekend when he took a break from training.”
Well that is complete crap as he has not left his training camp for the last 2 months, check ESPn boxing, and Roys blog. He says he does not want inteferance from home so has decided to stay @ camp for 2 months solid! Was it a hologram?!
Hatton will beat Pauli,but he will be murdered against any of the top fighters.Hatton just lacks talent and power compared to Mayweather,Oscar or Manny.If Hatton gets into the ring with any of those 3 he will be demolished.
wes, im british and your no doubtly american
u talk about the hate and jealously from europeans, but have u not wondered why we get so “sensitive” and “defensive”? thought not. if u did think why it might be because why get sick and tired of taking crap from u guys from across the pool. u only had to look at the jc and pavlik arugment we were bombarded with until pavlik was trounced by b-hop. so prehaps if u yanks calmed your super-egos for a bit and thought before u spoke we might not have a problem, will we?
u also mention the hatton v mayweather fight. now being a neutral (liking haton and mayweather hugely), i find it hard how u could not see the obvious bias from the referee.
u also talk about jc, but depending on who u believe, rjj and b-hop both ducked him at stages in their careers, but like i said, it depends on who u believe. nether the less, jc always fought those which were put in front of him- which is what boxers do. the manager and the promotion team arrange the fights, the fighters fight them. and unless you have never strapped on a pair of gloves and stepped into a ring, u would know just how hard it is to fight 45 fights and still remain unbeaten, even if they were against mostly mediocre opponents.
and one last point, we don’t beg or plead about their greatness or respect and how much they deserve, we just defend them from the bonbardment of abuse that get thrown their way.
i like the optimisum bt no, hatton and the brits won’t rule the world.
heres why:
with hattons case he will only fight 3 more fights before retiring, with one of those fights being against Malignaggi, who in my oppinion doesn’t deserve to be top 10. so that leaves just 2 fights left, which is just enough time to prehaps if enough money is put on the table to get a title shot (maybe 2 if he’s lucky), and to rule the world you need to be undisputed. also, you can count out mayweather comming back, he’s got by far enough cash now to bother comming back into a sport in which he has no interest or desire in to risk an upset or injury against anyone. you can also rule out del la hoya, as he seems not to want to fight against those who come anywhere near him in size or power. that leaves only the pac man and he will no doubt cuz large problems for hatton with his speed, and after fighting del la hoya (in a fight where he will probably get badly beaten) he will not want to rush into the ring to then fight another big, aggressie opponent in hatton.
then theres JC. by the looks of things he will only be fighting rjj this year which he says will be his last, so im afraid you won’t be seeing him rule the world in 2009 either.
that leaves just haye left, someone who i admire very much (3 world title belts in 21 fights is amazing, whichever way you look at it), but i do doubt that he will be able to wipe the floor with the heavies, and will take a least 1 defeat in the nxt yr or 2 against them, setting him back hugely. don’t get me wrong, i beleive he will become a world camp in the future, but not for a while yet and definatley not without a few ups and downs.
so in conclusion, i like the artilce very much as defends us brits for a change, but lets not lose perspective here, we are by no means world beaters yet, and with hatton and jc retiring soon, haye yet to prove himself in the heavy divison and khan seemingly put back to stage 1 in his career, 2009 will interesting make no doubt about it, especillay with some of the great young talent comming through, but don’t raise you hope to high yet.
Timothy Bradley1 Scared! Wahaha! Is this the ‘Pavlik syndrome’ again?!
Hatton is looking for a fight with De laHoya but the thing is Tim Bradly wants Hatton and Hatton’s runnin like a Chicken and De la Hoya want to fight the smaller guys so he doesn’t get hurt. DelaHoya should be lookin at Veron Forest or Paul Williams and we all know Oscar is Afriad of Antonio Margarito.so DelaHoya just get out the game dude.You did right by signing James Kirkland to fight for you a 154.
but there’s a another fighter out there is ready for Kirkland at 154, The Piston kid from Charleston. James watchout or lightout my man.