Was Hatton’s Loss Just an Aberration?
May 27th, 2009
By William Mackay: Although many boxing fans and experts have pretty much written Ricky Hatton off as finished as a fighter, has anyone took the time to contemplate whether Hatton’s losses to Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were more of an aberration rather than a sign that Hatton is shot as a fighter?
And then Hatton has a problem with sticking to the new style in his next fight with Pacquiao and almost immediately gets knocked out. Instead of seeing it as a failure to follow directions by his new trainer and implement what was taught to him, many of the so-called boxing experts and fans are ready to right Hatton off as having a diminished ability to take a punch and that he’s washed up as a fighter.
I can almost guarantee you that if Hatton had fought Mayweather and Pacquiao at any stretch of his career the same results would have occurred if Hatton had been using his old style of fighting against them. That doesn’t mean that Hatton was a shot fighter or that his old style of fighting was completely useless and ineffective.
What it meant was that he needed to use a different style of fighting for those two guys in order to beat them. Muhammad Ali knew that he couldn’t rush out and try to trade shots with George Foreman in their fight. Instead, he came up with a plan to stay on the ropes and tire Foreman out by making him expend energy by throwing a lot of punches.
The difference here is that Ali came up with a plan ahead of time and stuck to and didn’t deviate from it at any time in the fight. The same goes for Pacquiao. He came up with a plan to use against Hatton and carried it out to the letter.
It was pretty much the same thing that Pacquiao has been doing since the second Erik Morales fight where Pacquiao is throwing more right hooks to catch his opponents as they’re coming in. However, to listen to Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach you’d think that this was something that was completely new.
But the important thing is Pacquiao stuck to a plan and it worked well for him. Hatton didn’t follow any plan other than his old style of fighting, which gave Hatton little chance of beating a fighter like Pacquiao. Again, Hatton could beat most fighters with his old style of fighting but for a fighter like Pacquiao, Hatton would need to have a different way of fighting if he wanted to come out the winner.
That doesn’t mean that Hatton is a shot fighter or that he can’t take a big punch anymore, because I’m fairly certain he can. Hatton just made the mistake of rushing blindly in against a fighter with blazing fast hand speed and with a great right hook.
It was the same case with Vic Darchinyan when he tried to rush in against southpaw Nonito Donaire and was nailed with a right hook on the way in and knocked out. No one said that Darchinyan was shot, even though he was clearly knocked out in the fight.
It doesn’t matter if Hatton was knocked clean out, because he never even saw the punch because he wasn’t expecting it and he was having problems adjusting to Pacquiao’s speed and southpaw style. Few light welterweights have hand speed anywhere close to that of Pacquiao, and the ones that aren’t southpaws.
Tags: 13 Responses to “Was Hatton’s Loss Just an Aberration?”
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Ricky Hatton tried to fight Pac the way he’s beat 45 other fighters. I think that he felt he could do this because he severely underestimated Pac’s power. I don’t think Hatton’s shot, or his career is over, he’s just lost to two top tier fighters, the two best in the world. If he continues to fight just “good” fighters, he would be successful 9 times out of ten, or 45 times out of 45.
You’re right Hatton didn’t have a game plan while Pacquiao had a solid strategy to deal with him.
in the manny fight ricky woz weight drained nervous and intimidated.he looked worried going in to the ring.if all these things were corrected i think ricky would hav had a much better chance of beating manny.
ricky hatton is at the best shape of his life, he is far from being a shot fighter and at 140 he is in his strongest class. style makes fight freddie roach just read ricky like an open book. that is why manny had an easy win. even if ricky stuck to mayweather sr. gameplan the outcome would still be the same. ricky should be wise and cherry pick his opponent that match well with his fighting style.
right now it would be a 50/50 even if he fight juan manuel marquez. ricky should call out marquez for late of the year or early 2010 match. a come forward vs. a counter puncher is a watchable slugging feast. not the upcoming july bout of a runner vs. a counter, we’ll migth aswell just watch a track and field event.
Manuel Perez, take note. This is how one should write an article.
Hatton and a great fighter in England. But on the world stage he came up against the greatest and understandably lost.
Mayweather and Pac are as good as they are because they take their training and skills to extremes. Hatton bloats between bouts an drinks and eats too much. The way to be the best is absolute total commitment and that is something Hatton never did. A months training with Mayweather Snr isn’t going to fix years of bad habits. He needed alot longer.
I still feel no matter how much training or new skills he learnt Manny was just too fast for him. If you don’t see a punch, you don’t see a punch. Oscar had the same problem when he threw in the towel. ‘There’s no point carrying on…he’s just too fast!’
Well put James, I can’t in any way argue with you as your argument is pretty much the same as my original one.
I think Hatton, under severe scrutiny from a top notch coach who can somehow seriously improve his defense, can continue fighting, possibly even against Mayweather types if, and its a massive if, he can rectify the flaws in his style.
I am quite possibly being over optimistic regarding his future, but I seriously believe that if he can avoid taking as much punishment, he can continue.
I disagree, for reasons I’ve outlined in previous posts.
To summarise those reasons, 47 fights is a lot, but especially so given Hatton’s style has led to him getting hit a lot. Getting hit in the head does not do you any good – “your brain rattles” as FM Snr put it. Or, to put it another way, blunt force trauma to the head results in brain damage. Modern medicine keeps on moving forward, but it can’t do brain transplants. It would be better to quit one punch/fight too soon, rather than one punch/fight too late. Hatton is “only 30″ but has more miles on the clock than most 30-year-old boxers, due to fighting style and going up and down in weight so much between fights.
At the risk of being pedantic, the result wouldn’t have been the same between Hatton and Manny if they’d fought at a different point in his career, because Manny was rather much smaller until recently!
A far more important point is that the Darchinyan comparison is both irrelevant and inaccurate. Firstly, Donaire caught Darchinyan with a LEFT hook, not a right one. Secondly, it was a short-left hook close in, not the wider variety thrown by Pacquiao against Hatton. Thirdly, Darchinyan was not out cold for a few minutes like Hatton was.
Finally, to say that it doesn’t matter that Hatton was knocked clean out, is absurd. The words blunt force trauma and brain damage should spring to mind again here. If you suffer a chilling KO like that, then you need a seriously good reason(s) to carry on IMHO. Forget styles, fight plans, trainers and all that. Find the reason(s) first.
Good article! Pacman was just a class above he could still beat most of the top fighters at L-welterweight. He should take on Witter it would be a very exciting fight
I completely agree here.
Hattons been able to fight off and beat better slikked opponants than himself with his brute force and style but when he faces the quality of Pacman and Mayweather the cracks in his game are completely exposed and exploited while they at the same time become a harder target for Hatton to pin down to enforce his own style. Not that Pacman needed to do much of that.
Hes just not top tier, but then theres not many that are.
I truly believe that Hatton is still a good fighter; however, with his old style, it would be very difficult for him to beat fighters of the calibre of Pacquiao, Marquez and Mayweather. At best, I think he would have only a puncher’s chance of beating Marquez, with any style, since Marquez is such a good defensive fighter and counterpuncher, though not exceptionally fast. Against Pacquiao, I think he would have a better chance of success, with a positive and strategic change in style, since Manny’s defense is not outstanding… he can be hit fairly easily.His quickness, however, helps to make up for the deficiency in his defense. Against Mayweather, Hatton’s chance of success tends to zero. Mayweather’s ring generalship… his intelligence, his outstanding defense, his ability to adjust, his stamina, his punching accuracy, and his quickness, would be just too much for Ricky to overcome.
Unfortunately, Hatton’s people did not employ the usual rematch clause in his fight with Pacquiao. I think that there is a reasonable chance that he could redeem himself in a rematch with Manny.
Hatton has nothing to be ashamed of; he lost to two of the top fighters of the decade. He can bounce back with some change in his fighting style. Best wishes, Ricky!
The old adage holds true “styles makes fights”. Perhaps Hatton can continue fighting and continue to dominate at 140. His fights with Mayweather and Pacquiao showed that Hatton cannot deal with faster fighters who have decent movement and a decent punch. Hatton just found out where his ceiling is. He is a good fighter with a good deal of heart, but he is not able to compete with the truly elite. I suspect that if Hatton fought against Marquez, he would run into the same problem.
That is actually a good article, I am one of the guys who thought / think Hatton is finished, but having read your article and how simply you have outlined Hattons path to date, I have to say I agree with you.
I think Hatton looked extremely slim against Manny, maybe all of those elements just caused a bad loss whereas if he was more focused on his ‘new’ style and a little heavier things may have been different.. I’m not sure either way but a thought provoking read..
M