Could the Hatton That Stopped Tszyu Have Beaten Pacquiao?
May 11th, 2009
By Sean McDaniel: Many moons ago in 2005, Ricky Hatton pulled off arguably his biggest win of his boxing career in stopping light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu in the 11th round in Manchester. In that fight, Hatton was in his prime, a nonstop punching machine with a sturdy chin and grappling skills second to none. At the start of the fight, Hatton was all over the 36-year-old Tszyu, smothering him, not giving the Russian champion any room to get off his punches.
Part of what made Hatton so successful against Tszyu in that fight was that Hatton was allowed to wrestle on the inside for prolonged periods of time without the referee stepping in to halt the non-action and separate them. In a place like Las Vegas, Nevada, Hatton would have never been able to fight the way he did against Tszyu, because the referee would have been all over him, either telling him to stop wrestling or just wordlessly separating him from Tszyu.
However, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose that Pacquiao had been talked into travelling to Manchester and fighting the bout on Hatton’s home turf with an English referee, who would be much more inclined to let Hatton wrestle for as long as he likes.
How would an all action fighter like Pacquiao been able to deal with the wrestling of Hatton? I have no doubts that Pacquiao would have been able to land some big shots as Hatton would come forward. I doubt it, though, that Pacquiao’s big shots would have had any effect on Hatton, because his chin was still sturdy at that point in his career, and not weakened by a knockout loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the effects of years of overeating and drinking.
Pacquiao wouldn’t be able to land more than one or two shots before Hatton would be on him, grabbing him and wrestling at close range for prolonged periods of time. The only real punches that could be landed in that situation are shot punches with much less power than the big shots from the outside.
Although I think that Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, would have come up with a good game plan, but back then I doubt it would have worked well against Hatton, who would be given cart blanche to wrestle for as long as he’d like by whoever the referee was.
Pacquiao is a great fighter, but he’s nowhere near as skilled a wrestler as Hatton. I think Pacquiao would be athletic enough to score some shots in between being twisted like a pretzel by Hatton on the inside, but I suspect that by the 11th round, Pacquiao would be exhausted from the constant back and forth wrestling on the inside and that Hatton would be a good position to score a knockout over Pacquiao.
The difference in this fight would be Hatton’s better chin, home environment where he’s allowed to wrestle, and his youth. It’s too bad that Hatton’s prime lasted so short a time, because at for that one fight, Hatton was probably too good for Pacquiao and would have beaten him.
Tags: 26 Responses to “Could the Hatton That Stopped Tszyu Have Beaten Pacquiao?”
Leave a Reply
please use above banner to link back to us!
Manny Pacquiao K.O’d the number 3 rated P4P fighter and a young 29 years old Barrera then he followed that up against future Hall of Famer Morales by knocking the guy twice on their fight though Pac lost once but then again both Men are still at their prime when Manny destroyed them.
My God MR. Writer….that’s why it’s called BOXING, not WRESTLING!!! This isn’t the UFC!! The Pac-hating on this site is becoming clearer and clearer…not to mention these so called sport’s writers are some of the most incompetent, amateurish writers I have ever had the displeasure of reading…but they do make for great comedy!
My bad, he was born in Russia – making him Russian. My bad.
Kosta is an Aussie, not a Russian. “Thunder from Down-under;” you should really do your home work before writing this dribble.
no! its that simple.
“Pacquiao is a great fighter, but he’s nowhere near as skilled a wrestler as Hatton.”
lol, were they in a boxing ring or a wrestling ring? Remind me.
If you think about it, since Hatton is considered beat down ever since he lost to Mayweather, then Pacquiao did exactly what he was supposed to do to a washed up fighter. He knocked him out in less time that Roach gave him credit for. If you take the Hatton of 2005, someone at his prime, Pacquiao would have done the same thing because a Ricky Hatton at his prime never had any defense. He only had offense. Basically, it doesn’t matter when Pacquiao fights Hatton. Whether it’s the past or the present, Hatton’s never had a chin because he’s never had any defense. I bet that Hatton’s thinking about improving his defense instead of his offense. Mayweather exposed that Hatton never had any defense. If Pacquiao fought Hatton before Mayweather, Roach would have easily figured it out by watching his tapes. Then Pacquiao would’ve exposed him immediately. It’s Hatton’s fault. He doesn’t learn from his mistakes. As far as Pacquiao goes, he’s been exposed many times. The difference is that Pacquiao always learns something new, unlike Hatton who seems to revert back to his old style.
Hatton would have still lost. Hatton is not on the same circle of boxers as Pacman. Tzyu is old and does not have the movement that the Pacman has. There is no way Hatton can catch the Pacman.
Robbie,
Barrerra and Morales weren’t past their prime, Barrera was 29 in their first fight and 33 in their second (second fight maybe). And Morales was 29 and 30 when he fought Pac, so neither of them were past their prime except maybe Barrera in their last fight. Pac just made them look to be past their prime. De La Hoya, he was DEFINATLy past his prime, and weight drained, but I give full credit to Pac for making fighters seem past their prime. People are saying Hatton is past his prime now too, but they weren’t saying that 6 months ago after he beat Malignaggi. People are just buying making excuses regarding Pac’s opponents and how miserable they looked against Pac, but they just don’t give Pac credit for MAKING them look miserable.
he still would of never beat pac-man hatton was a good fighter but he is not the best every 20 years or so we have someone special come threw and i believe joe calzaghe and manny pac-man are best thing to come out of boxing since mike tyson and before tyson was m ali and before him was rocky marciano we all know that hatton was a 1 way fighter and that was full steam ahead no defence but manny could do the same but he had defence manny is a all round boxer he has everything thats why i believe he will go on to beat mayweather not as quick as hatton but he will beat him with fredy roach in his corner this man is unstopable
Does it matter? Ricky was the same fighter then that he is now the diffrence is Tzyu took the fight on short notice and travelled to Hattons back yard. Anybody who saw the fight knows the fight was rather close on rounds it doesnt mean Tzyu wouldve got the decision but he did win rounds too make it close. Tzyu well trained and in the U.S. wouldve kod Hatton.
For the record Muhammad, De La Hoya, Barrera and Morales were past their best when pac-man fought them and Morales beat him first time round – Larios is not world class.
Hatton never had defense and never will.He’s not a boxer,he’s a brawler.If Hatton had grown up in the States,nobody would have known his name because he woulda been exposed much earlier.They hyped him and treated him like a child by putting him up against c class boxers then when he got in the ring against real boxers like Mayweather and Pacquaio, it wasnt even a good fight.He also lost to Collazo and if Hatton wants to fight again he should give Collazo his rematch.
what hatton needs is to improve his defense and not to apply wrestling in boxing
Why does the writer of this article try to twist the fight to wrestling from boxing.Remember, a good boxer box and not wrestle, unless the fight is same as UFC.it is very boring to see a fight with one of the boxer do wrestling rather than boxing.i don’t know if the author forgot that the fight between pacquiao and hatton is boxing and not mix martial that is why he seemed to favor hatton to wrestle.
To a great fighter you need to have a good resume of elite fighters that you beat. Relying only on the win against Tsyzu is not good enough considering he is not on his prime anymore. Campare that to Pacquiao’s resume, likes of Barrera, Morales, Marquez, De La Hoya, Larios. This is where Pacquiao’s improvement came from, fighting top level elite fighters most of the time. Not only ones but beat them twice.
i really like hatton but if you look back at his career there are not that many world class fighters there, apart from an old, past his best tzsyu the only others are the 2 fights he lost too.
i agree with flash, for some reason hatton thought that defence was something that went round a garden. i think he thought he was fighting another malinagi who had no punch power and hatton could walk through his punches. But my god he got it wrong.
Nick,
Have you boxed ?? or are you an arm chair boxer?? grappling/holding is part of boxing for defence and for attacking. Having these type of skills is just as important then being a boring long distance fighter who just uses flashing footwork and fast combinations to win fights at a distance.Hatton is not B rated. seven of his last eight oppeanants have been world champions.
who cares? wrestling/grappling is not boxing- nobody wants to see this type of fighting in a boxing match. hatton is an old-school boxer, as are most UK boxers, the rest of the world has evolved their boxing skill but it seems that us in the UK are way behind. hatton might have been a top boxer in UK but he is a grade B boxer compared to the rest of the worlds greats and most definitely Pacquiao.
Who cares?
What is the point of this nonsense/
I love Flash’s analogy of a chin not being like faded jeans, made me laugh. I agree with Flash though, Hatton beat an old Tszyu. With that said, it therefore made Hatton the best in the division, because as old as Tszyu was, he was still rated as the best. Maybe a younger Tszyu may have beat that Hatton, but thats boxing, greats cross over at different times and you dont always end up gettin two prime fighters competing. It’s like saying Is Messi a better football/soccer player than Maradona, fact is, you’ll never know for sure and we can debate it all day long, it’ll never get proven right or wrong as a fact.
I think if hatton had kept his guard up, worked behind a jab and took his time it could have been different. He has the power to make an upset but his attitude is all wrong. He looked totally inexperienced and under trained. Tzsyu would have won had he been in his late 20′s.
I don’t think so. The chin is not like a levis jeans where after a couple of use is it would become faded. The chin of Hatton way back 2005 is most likely the same to date.
Tzysu also was getting senile when he got beaten by Hatton, so the question can go back “could the Tzyu before that has an age of let’s say 29 have beaten Hatton during the 2005 bout?”
No, Tzsyu was 34 and fighting about once a year, it was a great show from Hatton, good workrate etc but if Tszyu was younger the result would have been different.
I still think Pacman would’ve won but the stoppage would have been later
we can never compare times buy if you put them both together in 2005 hatton wins for sure i think 2 strong 2 fast the hatton pac man beat aint thetre no more hes gone colin jones retired at 25 hatton should of at 28 yes he can beat witter now and kattsidis but whats the point no point at all retire as a hall of fame boxer.