Does Hatton Have A Padded Record?
December 30th, 2008
By Michael Lieberman: Maybe the best British fighter ever, Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) is held in high esteem on that tiny island and has dominated much of the news from that area for the past four or so years. He’s done his job admirably, beating some decent fighters during his 11 year professional career. However, I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but when I look at Hatton’s record, I don’t see much substance there.
In fact, I see next to no quality opposition until 2005 when Hatton beat Kostya Tszyu by a 11th round TKO. The win, maybe the best of Hatton’s career, isn’t quite so impressive when you factor in that it came at the very end of the then 36-year-old Tszyu’s career.
Okay, so we can take away the win over Tszyu from Hatton’s record and not count it, because of the age of Tszyu at the time.
Similarly, Hatton’s 4th round stoppage win over former lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo in 2007 doesn’t really impress either. At the time that Hatton fought Castillo, Jose was 34-years-old, and had just moved up in weight from the lightweight division after having countless wars against Diego Corrales, Joel Casamayor, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., and clearly wasn’t the same fighter he was years earlier.
The combination of the added weight, the wars and the age had the effect of dulling Castillo’s once incredible boxing skills, making him susceptible to stoppage by Hatton. As a result, I don’t count the win as being an impressive feat given those factors.
In fact, I see it more along the same lines as Joe Calzaghe’s recent win over the 39-year-old Roy Jones Jr. It’s a name on a resume, but not the same thing as if Calzaghe had beaten a prime Jones, because frankly, I think Calzaghe would have been embarrassed by a younger Jones and beaten to a pulp without laying a glove on him.
Hatton’s 12-round decision over former light welterweight champion Vince Phillips in 2003, also isn’t that big of a deal, given the fact that Phillips was then 40-years-old, and clearly the same fighter he had been six years earlier when he was the IBF light welterweight champion. Beating Phillips was good, but it’s hard to get enthused about a 25-year-old fighter like Hatton beating a 40-year-old ex-champion like Phillips.
Again, if this fight were to have had any value, then it should have taken place when the two fighters were of similar ages. They weren’t and by the time that Hatton met up with Phillips, Vince was on the downward slope in his career.
Hatton’s 12-round decision win over Juan Lazcano wasn’t impressive either, because Hatton was hurt badly in the fight, getting tagged with a big left hook in the 8th and appearing on the verge of being stopped when the referee stopped the action to give Lazcano a warning about what, I have no idea.
Hatton then took this opportunity to have his shoelaces tied, giving himself more time to recover. By the time the action resumed, Hatton had recovered completely and went on to win the fight. Lazcano, a good fighter, but more of a journeyman than a true title contender, yet he had Hatton hurt and who knows what might have happened if the referee hadn’t interrupted the action to give a warning to Lazcano and let Hatton have his shoes tied.
I’ve never seen a fighter who was badly hurt in a fight be allowed to have their shoelaces tied. Can you imagine that flying in America? A fighter gets hurt, points to his shoes and the referee stops the action and lets them take off 20 to 30 seconds to have their shoelaces tied. Believe me, it wouldn’t happen.
Hatton would have likely been in serious trouble if he tried to have his shoelaces tied if he were to get hurt in a fight in the United States. The referee would probably look at him, shrug his head as to say, ‘too bad, tell it to someone that cares.’
Beating Paulie Malignaggi, a former IBF light welterweight champion, is also not that impressive, because Malignaggi had looked terrible in recent fights against Lovemore N’dou and Herman Ngoudjo, appearing to lose both of them but winning them somehow. More of a finesse fighter, Malignaggi had no power to compete with Hatton, and as most people expected, he lost badly to Hatton.
For many people, they had no idea why Hatton chose to fight Malignaggi, because there was no title belt involved in the fight aside from the lowly IBO belt, making the fight a curiosity. Instead of going after Timothy Bradley, the WBC light welterweight champion, and the fight considered by many experts to be the best fighter in the division, Hatton chose Malignaggi without a title on the line. I wonder why?
As for Hatton’s best opponent of his career, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Hatton was destroyed by him in an embarrassing 10th round stoppage in 2007. It’s a good fight to have on Hatton’s resume, but it matters little because he was handled so easily by Mayweather and beaten.
The remainder of Hatton’s resume, as far as I’m concerned, has even worse substance than the fighters that I’ve mentioned above. Missing names like Kendall Holt, Bradley, Junior Witter, Ricardo Torres, Andreas Kotelnik, Devon Alexander, and Marcos Maindana. If it was me, I would have been going after those names instead of opponents like Malignaggi, Juan Urango, Lazcano and Luis Collazo.
Tags: 25 Responses to “Does Hatton Have A Padded Record?”
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Your writing is soo biased and anti-british if your going to make an argument have a balanced arugment… from most of your writing i guess you dont know what that is… This articles purpose is to slate the british and provides no interesting reading at all pure trash like most of your writing. Ive put up with it for a while now but after this something had to be said.
You’re a d**k!
it’s strange that i posted a reply a few days ago highlighting how lieberman had described malignaggi’s credentials as “impeccable” and he was “one of the best fighters around” in an article in september 2008.i asked perople to take the trouble to read it from the archives,just to highlight the fact that since hatton beat him this clown now says that malignaggi had looked terrible in his recent fights and everyone expected hatton to win.my reply was up on the board,but now isn’t there.strange that!
Adam your more of a delluded clown than Lieberman! Ha ha!
There are so many holes to pick over what you just said I don’t think I have the time! but it’s not worth me wasting my typing on your primative perspective anyway… I mean it’s either that or your into stand up! if so I liked the part where you tried to excuse America’s very poor boxing scene by basically saying that Wladamir Klitschko is actually an American. Ha ha ha!
I’d love to see Wladamir’s responce to that one!
Hatton is a good fighter and can be in the future part of the Boxing Hall of Fame. For him to do that he must defeat Pacman which is very unlikely and get a shot in doing business with Bradley, Holt, Hopkins or Floyd. if he kills this three guys he might have a shot of being immortalize someday.
Don’t get it too straight dude it might come back to your fav Hatton. PACMAN Rules….
And Adam, as for your ignorant comments that your problem with British people is that they build up a fighter who has had a couple of decent wins into some type of great i present to you…….
Pavlik,Dawson,Bradley,Alexander,Jacobs,Arreola,Holt,Chambers,Johnson,Dirrel,Ward. Thats just a few that you and your mates on this site have wrote beyond ridiculous articles about stating them to be great on the back of less than a handful good displays. Should i hate all Americans because of ludicrus statements like those made by the likes of yourself and Mr. Lieberman. Then write countless Articles of bile towards that talent vacuum you call a country.
To put it into perspective, David Haye is probably the 3rd best fighter in Britain, and in his 22 fights has achieved more than everyone on that list of Hyped Americans.
Maybe you should be upset at us Brits then, sorry.
These Americans make me laugh.. PADDED FIGHTERS.
Sorry please remind me when the last time that a good American fighter left the US to come over the Europe to fight there elite, and win?? hmmm..
Americans are the most over rated and most padded fighters on earth and the fact that the Brits have to come to the US to prove themselves is fine.. because most of the time we win anyway.
The fact is US boxing is failing, the top p4p reflects that only a 43 year old lies in the top 10, i rest my case.
Stick to the UFC lads its all you are really good for.
Hatton is not our best ever boxer. However, he is content with fighting the best available and is attracting unbelievable attention.
Dont forget floyd was boxings number 1. There is no shame in loosing to him.
Next up is current number 1 manny pacquaio. If he does looses as expected, theres no shame in that.
The best guys wanna fight ricky cause they will get an entertaining fight and they’ll make 20 million. So why not? MOST WANTED MAN IN BOXING I SAY!
Joe Calzaghe. Credit where credit is due. 20 year champ. But him beating roy jones is like me going round maradona with a football. In other words, a bit too late mate!
But he has done well in his time even though he hasnt fought the best in their prime and waited for them to fade! but we’ll give him his dues.
THE BEST EVER BRITISH FIGHTER?
There’s only 1. Lennox ‘mofo’ Lewis.
Beaten padded fighters? Well of course if you consider Tyson, Holyfield, Klitschko, Bowe, McCall, Golota, Ruiz, Ruddock… all poor fighters.
He fought the best and didnt cherry pick opponents (Calzaghe) and those that he did lose to, he went back and battered them.
Undisputed heavyweight champion.
For all you Americans bragging that you have more fighters than us, have you ever taken the time to consider many more people there are in America? About 250 million!! And in Britain, Football (soccer), Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, Athletics, Swimming etc.etc. are all more popular than Boxing so you can hardly complain about the options of other sports in your country! To be honest, 95% of people in Britain don’t even give a s**t about boxing, but taking all into account, producing champions like Calzaghe and Hatton is a much bigger achievement than having those arrogant w*****s you seem to have a hell of a lot of.
No offense to american fans but Hatton wants a rematch with Mayweather anyway and when Hatton KO’s Pacquiao then he’ll have a rematch with Mayweather and we’ll see whose best. Plus every American that’s fought Calzaghe has got there backsides wupped, what happened to Lacy. And Malignaggi got his backside wupped by Hatton and you can’t say Malignaggi wasn’t a decent fighter cause he was the number 2 Hatton is a class fighter and i hope he has a rematch with Mayweather.
OHHHH!!!So know the excuse is that Hatton was naturally smaller?OK.That’s pathetic,but their will be no rematch becuase Hatton got destroyed and would never take a fight with Mayweather ever again.And Mayweather isn’t in the p4p top 10 because he oficially retired because nobody wants to fight him.Ricky Hatton looked like a fool in the ring against Mayweather.In a rematch it would prolly be worse.Calzaghe is a true champ all be it a little boring and hasn’t fought anybody but a champ none the less.That’s it.That’s what you have.And you Brits brag about that like you have the greatest boxers in the world.Gimme a break fool.Do you really want me to go down the list of great boxers from America?No you dont.Americans have so many options other than boxing nowadays that we are faultering a bit.But i like watching boxing period,no matter what nationality.And the Klitschko’s are it.Wlad has American citizenship by the way.And besides Calzaghe,you Brits don’t have squat.You have Calzaghe,we have Mayweather.We also have Kelly Pavlik,although he didnt look great in his outing with Hopkins,but he’s a champ none the less.
And Ben as or your ignorant comment that UK fighters are better than american fighters.Last time i checked,Mayweather made Hatton look like a fool.And the last time i checked Mayweather is American.And the last time i checked you Brits dont have any great boxers except Calzaghe,and im still waiting for Calzaghe to beat someone besides a washed up Roy Jones Jr or Jeff Lacy.I dont mean Jeff Lacy was washed up,i mean he was not a great boxer.Average at best.
Hatton would never beat Mayweather and Hatton will never beat Pacquaio.Hatton is not a great fighter let alone the best ever.His record is emensly padded and Hatton flat out lost fights with Luzcano and Urango.I have no problem with British boxers or the British in general but u guys think that every British boxer that wins a few fights is the greatest in the world.Hatton is not even close to being a great fighter and never will be.As i said before he is a poor mans Arturo Gotti.
hatton has a great record you might think its a padded record because hes lost a fight with mayweather and if he has a rematch i can uarentee haton will win!
you get better and better liberman. you still sound a bit bitter that our little island used to own you.
as for american boxing…. its a shower of sh*te
I think Lieberman has a point, Us British seem to get all over excited when we have a boxer who is a half decent fighter like Hatton. I think Ricky’s record is a little padded but he is an above average but overrated fighter. I would avoid Mayweather & the pacman like the plague if I were him, They are true fighters/legends. And by the way, I am English!!
Nice article. The truth is beginning to come out here, its not Calzaghe, its not Hatton, its not Haye that you hate, its clearly the British in general.
Well if thats your bag then so be it. Im not guna come on here and slate America, 1 cuz i aint a jumped up little prick like you Liebergirl and 2 cuz this is a boxing website.
Your comments on British fighters and the facts you TRY to come out with is just plain bollocks and we respond to your crap because your a tit and we like you to know it and not because we think you make solid points that we like to counter.
i’ll tell u whats up wit british rubbish, they all suck bottom line, loud mouf pint suckers, they are wack bottom line, and hatton is on the top of that list, followed by JC, next Khan, bar room fighters….
Hatton is a good fighter just a good fighter…PACMAN is the BEST…
Jimmy Wilde is the GREATEST BRITISH fighter Ever.
But HE was KNOCK OUT by the unknown Filipino Champ PANCHO VILLA.
Calzaghe only fought class C fighters before until he got the chance to do battle with the 43 year old old man, what will happen if they got entangled in the peek of hopkins carrer?
Who have you ever beat then Lieberman?
What on earth is the problem that American’s seem to have with British fighters?? You criticise Hatton, Calzaghe, Haye, Khan etc.ect, whilst failing to address the flaws with yours! Joe Calzaghe is undefeated after 46 professional fights, with 20+ defences of his WBO Super-Middleweight title yet you try to claim he’s not a good fighter! He beat a Hopkins who was still good enough to destroy Kelly Pavlik (one of your overrated fighters) and absolutely tore apart Jeff Lacy who you lot claimed was a “160 pound Mike Tyson”, but still say he hasn’t fought any decent opposition! Hatton has beaten everyone worth anything in the 140 pound division, and bar the Mayweather fight, hasn’t been defeated. That fight was practically ruined by Cortez, yet you find De la Hoya’s incompetence and downright ridiculous diet a more valid excuse for defeat! And as for David Haye; for a start, he slipped and was caught flush in the face whilst he was sitting on the floor, a punch that Barrett should have been DQ’d for. It was NOT a knockdown. Besides, who do you have in the heavyweight division? Areola?? Evander Holyfield?!?! Get a grip. And for the record, we do not think Hatton is the best British fighter ever!
load a crap just another writer jealous of british fighter pull your head out of your are mate
I think this lad has abit of a problem with british fighters. It’s alright another Tyso nmight come around one day for you chin up.
hatton the best british fighter ever?
calzaghe, Benn, Eubank, mcguigan,lewis,watson,harrison (scott),ken buchanan, possibly witter and in a few years time carl froch all better