If Hatton Loses To Pacquiao, Ricky Should Fight Margarito

By Boxing News - 01/26/2009 - Comments

hat453435By Jim Dower: The way I see it, if Ricky Hatton takes a brutal pounding by Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd, his best option for his next opponent should be none other than recently defeated Antonio Margarito. Who better to fight than Margarito, who’s now balancing on the edge of having his career ruined in his 9th round TKO loss to Shane Mosley on Saturday. The last person that Hatton is probably thinking about fighting right now is Margarito, but that’s because Ricky still hasn’t met up with Pacquiao.

Once he fights him and loses by a knockout or lopsided decision, then a career rebuilding fight with Margarito might just be what the doctor ordered. Who else can Hatton fight after a bad loss to Pacquiao? You can’t very well drag out Juan Lazcano one more time or Paulie Malignaggi, and no one cares about most of the light welterweights with the exception of the champions, which I don’t see Hatton getting in the ring with in this lifetime.

A loss to Pacquiao would take fights with Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya effectively off the table, and probably Miguel Cotto, too. The boxing public could probably care less about seeing any of those fights if Hatton takes a beating by Pacquiao, although that probably wouldn’t stop the fight from going ahead anyway.

Hatton will need to resurrect his career after a loss to Pacquiao, but he won’t be doing that by beating anything less than quality fighter. It might take more than couple of wins for Hatton to rebuild if his loss to Pacquiao is especially bad like I think it will.

By taking on Margarito, Hatton would be showing a tremendous amount of courage and would be putting himself in the position of being pushed straight back to the top like Mosley just was if Hatton can beat Margarito. Hatton certainly won’t get there by beating low grade fighters and hoping that the boxing publics’ memory is short enough to forget his loss to Pacquiao.

I’d have no problem with Hatton losing to Pacquiao, if he’d at least try to redeem himself by fighting someone like Ricardo Torres, Junior Witter, Timothy Bradley or Kendall Holt instead of the Lazcano and Malignaggi’s of the world. Hatton wants to fight the big fights from now on, but I think one has to get back in line when they take a bad beating and aren’t competitive.

In that case, Hatton should have to fight his way back to the top instead of being rewarded with other big money fights without proving himself against a top fighter in his weight class. When I say top fighter, I’m not referring to Malignaggi or Lazcano, let’s be clear on that.

Hatton needs to go out and take a tough fighter like Margarito or else fight one of the top fighters in the light welterweight division, before seeking out De La Hoya, Pacquiao or Mosley. He’d be helping himself if he’s able to rehabilitate himself against a top level fighter like those guys rather than cherry picking an over-matched journeyman or a contender with absolutely no power to speak of.



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