Hatton Has Unfinished Business With Witter and Bradley
December 27th, 2008
By Scott Gilfoid: Whether Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) ends up fighting both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2009, I think Hatton’s career will be forever tainted unless he steps it up and gives both Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) and Timothy Bradley (23-0, 11 KOs) at some point in time. Hatton, for obvious reasons, would be better off fighting them sooner rather than later, because he’s now 30 and his many ring wars are starting to show their effects on him.
Who knows how much time he has left before he ends up hanging up his gloves once and for all and retires from boxing. I don’t even care if Hatton loses to both Pacquiao and Mayweather, which will probably happen regardless, but what’s important is that Hatton Man’s up and fights them both.
I had no idea why or how Hatton could have chosen to ignore Witter for all these years, because it was clear that Witter had the goods and wasn’t just a pretender like some of the loud-mouth fighters from England. But instead of facing him, Hatton chose to ignore Witter, saying that he didn’t like Witter slagging him off in the media.
It sure worked for Haye, didn’t it? Vitali Klitschko wasn’t afraid to stand up firmly, and look Haye in the eyes and accept his challenge. For whatever reason, Hatton doesn’t want it. The same holds for Bradley, who is very interested in a fight with Hatton, but like Witter, Bradley is getting no nibbles from Hatton.
With speed and extraordinary power, Bradley is possibly the best light welterweight to emerge in the division in more than a decade and few boxing fans and writers would argue with this. It’s frankly troubling to see Hatton taking fights with Mayweather and Pacquiao, yet ignoring two well-deserving fighters like Bradley and Witter.
For me, Hatton should ignore those two fights, which I feel he doesn’t deserve yet, and fight both Bradley and Witter. If he can beat those two guys, then, yes, by all means, go ahead and fight Pacquiao and Mayweather. The tragedy is that both Witter and Bradley could probably beat Hatton, and move onto bigger fights themselves like Pacquiao and Mayweather.
If we’re looking for truly the best fighters taking on the best fighters, then Hatton needs to take on Witter and Bradley before moving onto bigger game. Let’s not kid ourselves here, Hatton is probably going to get beaten to the curb by both Pacquiao and Mayweather, and probably look like crap in losing to them.
Not to put too fine of a point, these fighters are probably going to be slaughters of the first order, with Hatton getting blasted around the ring like a rag muffin, eating punches and unable to get off his short body punches.
Maybe then he’ll finally choose to fight Witter and Bradley, but unfortunately by then it may not count for much, because neither of them will get much credit for beating Hatton if he’s already been beaten by Pacquiao and Mayweather prior to that.
Tags: 15 Responses to “Hatton Has Unfinished Business With Witter and Bradley”
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Hatton should av fought Witter @ his peak and when he ad the main belt (WBC), whatever the result would’ve been it wud av ad all the hype of Benn/Eubank and would’ve sold out any british venue
scott guildford you must be a disney reject m8 cause u aint got a clue when it comes to boxing. witter and bradley cmon my granny could put up a better fight thasn them.
final though “scott guildford go back to school m8 and learn summat else cause boxing is out of your league”
oli your a jumped up prick as well as gilfoid and lieberman. oli you should join lieberman and gilfoid in writing articles for this website we could do with some more light entertainment on a sunday night…….. the majority of the contributors on this site are good knowledgable writers but gilfoid and lieberman well i think the comments on every article they write say it all……… brilliant hahahahahahahah
he will never fight bradley and especially not junior witter..not never!
ricky hatton since beating tsyzu has never faced the best light welterweights and has never wanted to do that. how can you be the best in the division when you will not fight the top challengers. he would rather fight lazcano and malignaggi who is a joke..rather than dangerous challengers like witter or bradley or torres or holt. hatton is a fraud he never fights the best light welterweights
I read a funny one about calzaghe yesterday and thought wow that was hilarious, but this is the best article i have ever read. If Hatton dropped back to face against Witter and Bradley…what would it prove? If Hatton faced off against Pacquiao and Mayweather for the second time, what could be achieved?
I know what, while Hatton fights either Witter or Bradley rather than the number one fighters, David Haye should give Enzo a rematch at cruiserweight before he deserves to fight against Vitali at heavyweight…sounds good doesn’t it?
So going by Scotts thinking I guess Floyd’s record will always be tainted by the fact he’s ducked Cotto, Margo and Williams when he hung up his gloves? Retard.
this post is a joke. Bradley and witter are a full level below hatton which means on a bad day he would still easily beat them. best fight for them would be a rematch. i do feel hatton is a little lucky to get the chance to fight manny and to even have a chance of a rematch with floyd but at the end of the day its all about money.
Everyone knows this is just a load of crap, Gilford is just using this as an excuse to put Hatton down in a way he would never dream of saying to his face.
This post is hillarious!! Witter?? Bradley?? Who?? You hae to taking the Mick. Witter beat an ageing vivian Harris and for “desert storm” I would have rather watch paint dry than watch that guy box. His last fight was awful.
This report should be taken off this website as it makes it look amaturish. U basically have no knowledge on boxing at all. I just hope ur not being paid for these posts.
Great Post Scott.
How someone can overlook Witter and Bradley and focus on Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweathe Jr is beyond me. This is exactly the type of thing ruining Boxing. Hatton should man up and Face these two Top 70 p4p fighters and forget the current and former P4P number 1′s.
Shocking. Hang your head in shame Ricky.
i think you’ve now overtook lieberman as the most clueless and hopeless contributer on here.this article was actually very funny.”BRADLEY EXTRAORDINARY POWER!!!” “the best light welterweight in more than a decade AND FEW BOXING FANS AND WRITERS WOULD ARGUE WITH THIS” ha ha say no more! once i wanted you banned for your obvious lack of knowledge,but now i want esb to retain you as their number one comedy writer on these boards.absolutely brilliant keep it up scott!
what, Bradley is a massively unknowwn fighter with average at best power. He has only beaten a very poor witter. I suspect in a re match witter would win. If either of those fighters performed like they did in that fight against Hatton they would not stand a chance. The reson these guys dont get the big fights is because they have not yet proven they are worthy and can bring anything to the table. I’d like to see bradlry and witter in against a higher level of fighter fist. Beating the Ndou’s and Cherrys of this world is nothing to shout about. You have to earn the big money fights you dont get given them
Same old nonsense , grow up.Why would he fight a couple of guys who couldnt sell a newspaper when he can fight two mega stars for monster money with the same prognosis for both.Win and you are a mega star , lose you have pots of cash and no disgrace, you really need to get out more often!!
Come on now Scott son.
Dont make out that Hattons been avoiding Bradley, When Hatton was winning world titles and making his defences of them where was Bradley? About 10 fights into his career and nowhere near ready for a title shot with any of the belt holders let alone the best in Hatton.
He may be ready now but look at what Hattons got in his sights, The Pacman followed by Maywether 2. Thats why hes not really interested in Bradley.
Ive always wanted him to fight Whitter, just to shut him the hell up. Witters not in the same class as Hatton and certainly aint been the best light welter out there for a while. Hatton has been ignoring him cuz hes been so arrogant and disrespectful to Hatton. Maybe Vlad and Vitali should be doing the same.
But like i say i want him to shut whitter up once and for all.
Bradley ‘Extraordinary power’? 11 knockouts from 23 wins (which by my calculations is less than 50%) against mediocre opponents. That would suggest anything but extraordinary power.
To say that Witter and Bradley are better than Hatton is rather amusing, purely because it is nonsense. Witter has fought against genuine world class once (albeit at short notice) against Zab Judah and lost every round on the score cards. Bradley has yet to fight in Elite World class.
Why on earth should Hatton take a huge step back by fighting these guys when Manny and Floyd are willing to fight him? If you’re wanting to take on the best in and around your weight division then Witter and Bradley are certainly not the names that spring to mind!!